EDITORIAL - A resurgent scourge

In case law enforcement authorities haven’t noticed, kidnapping for ransom is once again on the rise. The surge is occurring not in Metro Manila but in the Zamboanga peninsula and neighboring areas where kidnapping has been a persistent scourge. Businessmen are favorite targets, dampening economic activity. Also targeted are foreigners, with the latest victim an Australian who went to Zamboanga Sibugay province to marry a Filipina he reportedly met online.

Warren Richard Rodwell, 56, was snatched at gunpoint from his home in a subdivision in Ipil town on Monday night. The case comes on the heels of the kidnapping of businesswoman Luisa Galvez Morrison, who is married to a Briton, also in Ipil last September, and gas station owner Monaliza Capa in October in Pitogo town, in the same province.

Nine other foreigners have been kidnapped in Mindanao this year. Four of them – a Chinese, an Indian, a Malaysian, and a Filipino-American teenager – remain in captivity. Three South Koreans seized in October were released, but one of them died in a hospital from a stomach ulcer that was left untreated while he was being held hostage.

In the past, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was widely believed to have used the Pentagon gang to raise funds through kidnapping in Mindanao. This time, investigators are reportedly eyeing certain local politicians who might be resorting to kidnapping in an early start to fund-raising for the 2013 election campaign. There was similar speculation in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon during periodic kidnapping sprees in the past.

Those sprees ended only when law enforcers launched a relentless campaign not only to capture the perpetrators but also to prevent them from benefiting in any way from ransom payments. Some crooks are prepared to rot in prison or even be killed just so their families can enjoy the fruits of their crime. Law enforcement authorities should not allow this to happen. If ransom is paid, it should be done merely to secure the release of captives and lead lawmen to the kidnappers. The ransom must be recovered and returned to victims.

Kidnapping and crimes such as carjacking flourish because perpetrators believe the risks are worth the immense profits. In fighting this latest surge in kidnapping, the government must send an unequivocal message that crime does not pay.