EDITORIAL - No end to kidnappings

The joke over the weekend was that the latest kidnap victim managed to escape, but only after paying ransom. Police said dermatologist Charmaine Ong, daughter of the owner of the company that processes meat products under the popular CDO brand, escaped from her kidnappers Saturday morning, a day after she was waylaid outside her clinic in Valenzuela City.

Whether Ong escaped or was freed in exchange for ransom, we may never know; reports said she and her relatives have refused to cooperate with the police. And who can blame them? The cops sent to interrogate them may even be among the kidnappers themselves. Public suspicions of police involvement in ransom kidnappings have persisted — part of the reason many cases go unreported to the police. Another reason is the valid fear that kidnappers may harm their victims if the relatives seek police help. Several police rescue operations have ended up with the kidnap victim dead or injured.

But how can the police act on unreported cases? If the Philippine National Police wants to receive such reports, it must first win public trust. This is going to be a slow process for the PNP, requiring a combination of good performance and an honest-to-goodness purge of the organization. Public trust can’t be forced; it has to be won. And trust can’t be won by the sort of bungled police response to the recent hostage situation in a Pasay City bus terminal. It can’t be won by ignoring reports from the Filipino-Chinese community about the suspected involvement of certain police officials in ransom kidnappings.

From January to May 5 this year, 80 people were kidnapped in 43 cases nationwide, with the crooks earning P53 million in ransom, according to the Citizens’ Action Against Crime. How many more will be victimized before the year is over? The challenge to end this scourge is not new to Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., incoming PNP chief. All these months he has headed the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force. As head of the national police he will be expected to do more. Unless genuine reforms are instituted in the PNP, there will be no end to kidnappings.