Kidnappers want ransom in dollars

In greenbacks, please.

The volatile foreign exchange rate has apparently infected the kidnap-for-ransom business, with kidnappers now demanding dollars in exchange for the release of their mostly Filipino-Chinese victims.

Agents of the Philippine National Police-Intelligence Group and the National Capital Region Police Office uncovered this new crime tack yesterday after they rescued in Mandaluyong City a 41-year-old mother and her seven-year-old daughter after five days in captivity.

Follow-up operations are underway for the arrest of the abductors of Joevet Tee and her daughter Genina, who were rescued during operations inside the SM Megamall along EDSA at around 8:35 p.m. Tuesday. The Tees own a construction business.

Intelligence Group director Chief Superintendent Robert Delfin said his men recovered the P935,000 ransom from the victims during a botched pay-off inside the mall.

The pay-off fell through because the kidnappers apparently sensed that they were being tailed by the police.

Joevet and Genina, a pupil of the Immaculate Conception Academy in Greenhills, San Juan, were snatched at around 10:30 a.m. last August 8 near the vicinity of the child’s school. They were later brought to an unidentified safehouse while negotiations were being made with the Tee family.

The suspects initially demanded a total of P10.3 million in ransom, half of it dollars. "They actually asked for $100,000 and P5 million in exchange for the victims’ freedom," police said.

Police noted that in the case of kidnap victim Lorenzo Tobiano-Pe, the abductors led by a former police major and his Chinese cohorts demanded a multimillion ransom in mixed currencies.

The Pe family requested that the amount not be published but Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto confirmed the kidnappers specified that a portion of the ransom be in dollars.