PNP files kidnap charges against 5 Koreans

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines – Police filed yesterday charges against five Korean nationals and their Filipina cohort for the abduction of 49-year-old Korean businessman Kim Kyung Soo in Kawit, Cavite last month.

In an interview with The STAR, Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director, said police have filed charges for Violation of Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code (Kidnapping and Serious Illegal Detentions) against the arrested suspects identified as Chun Sang Kun, Oh Won Sok, Kang Sang Chan, Lee Woo Ram, Chun De Wong and a certain Germinida Santos, wife of Chan.

Police earlier filed charges of illegal possession of firearms against the group before the Imus prosecutor’s office in Cavite following their arrest on June 9.

Pagdilao said the suspects were tagged by three barangay officials as responsible for the abduction of Soo.

He said combined elements of the CIDG-NCR and Calabarzon police nabbed the suspects in two separate operations in a Neogen farm in Barangay Cabatang, Tiaong, Quezon and in Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City, on June 9, 2011.

Pagdilao said the arrests stemmed from the search and arrest warrants issued by Presiding Judge Cesar Mangrobang of the Regional Trial Court Branch 22 in Imus, Cavite.

Recovered from the suspects were one pineapple-type hand grenade, one caliber .45 pistol, one 9mm pistol and several rounds of ammunitions.

Senior Superintendent Edwin Nemenzo, CIDG 4A regional director, said five male Koreans forcibly took the victim in front of Riverside Coffee Shop in Cavite, on May 4, 2011.

Soo told authorities that Oh and Kang invited him to a coffee shop in Kawit for a business meeting at around 8 p.m.

Upon arriving at the coffee shop, a car driven by another Korean, Chun, parked beside the victim’s Toyota Avanza (PII-269).

The three other Koreans on board the car alighted and subsequently grabbed and hurled him inside the car.

Soo told probers that the suspects hogtied and blindfolded him, and brought him to a farm owned by Chun in Tiaong, Quezon, where he was held captive from May 4 to May 10.

The suspects ordered Soo to transfer 50,000 Won (P2 million) from his bank account in Korea to Chun’s bank account in the Philippines. 

After settling the ransom, the suspects released the victim at a bus terminal in Baclaran at around 11 p.m. on May 10. Soo then sought the help of the authorities after his release.