EDITORIAL - Crush this scourge

Few criminal operations are more daring than this: a kidnapping pulled off during the morning rush hour on a Friday, payday, on one of the busiest streets in San Juan. Witnesses and police said the peace in Barangay Addition Hills was shattered before 8 a.m. yesterday when gunmen shot up houses at the corner of A. Mabini and Burgos streets. The gunmen were after Julio Ledesma’s two children, who were on their way to school with their driver and a nanny. Armed with rifles and pistols, the suspects smashed the driver’s window and shot up the tires of the children’s van. Then the gunmen dragged the wailing children into another van and fled. Reports said the kidnappers are demanding P50 million.

Although Ledesma is well known for being the fiancé of popular actress Assunta de Rossi, he is also a scion of one of the richest families in Negros. And he happens to be a congressman representing Negros Occidental.

The high-profile abduction shows that thugs are unfazed even by President Arroyo’s personal supervision of the campaign to restore peace and order. Kidnapping has become one of the most lucrative criminal activities in the country, and not even daily photo sessions by the President and law enforcers with suspects are enough to scare off kidnappers. Police said that in the first six months of the year, 63 people were reported kidnapped nationwide. Just recently, a young girl belonging to one of the richest clans in the country was also kidnapped in Alabang.

A major problem in the campaign against criminality is the involvement of police and soldiers. This latest abduction is likely to be no exception; who can be daring enough to pull off such a stunt? The Department of the Interior and Local Government has reported that over 200 cops and soldiers have been included in a list of notorious crime suspects. Investigators murmur that the daring abductions appear to be the handiwork of groups out to destabilize the administration. Whether the kidnappers are political destabilizers or ordinary criminals out to make big money quickly, these crooks must be found and the kidnapping scourge crushed.