Kidnapped Burmese boy rescued

MANILA, Philippines - An eight-year-old Burmese boy kidnapped last Friday in Laguna was rescued yesterday morning by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in an abandoned house in Taytay, Rizal.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima visited the boy yesterday morning at the Counter Terrorism Division of the NBI, which took him under custody while waiting for his parents, who own a food factory.

De Lima praised the NBI for rescuing the boy just days after he was snatched.

The rescue was led by lawyer Virgilio Mendez, NBI deputy director for regional operations.

De Lima ordered the NBI to conduct follow-up operations for the arrest of the four kidnappers, who were reportedly armed with Armalite rifles when they seized the boy.

De Lima also ordered the NBI to check the motive behind the kidnapping and why the Burmese boy was specifically targeted.

Although the kidnappers reportedly demanded ransom, the NBI refused to comment on this.

The boy was rescued at around 9:30 a.m. yesterday in a subdivision in Taytay, Rizal. He was locked and abandoned in a room.

Upon his rescue, the boy said, “I want to eat chicken because I’m very hungry,” according to NBI investigators.

Police said the boy was on his way to school aboard a service van along with 14 other children last Friday morning when four armed men on a red car blocked the vehicle in Barangay San Francisco, Biñan, Laguna.

One of the four men armed with an M-16 Armalite rifle ordered the boy to get out of the van.– With Arnell Ozaeta