EDITORIAL - Resurgence

The return of the scourge has been reported to Malacañang. Last Friday, President Duterte disclosed to the nation that kidnapping for ransom was back in Manila. And he suspected that the perpetrators were turning to kidnapping after abandoning drug trafficking.

No details were provided by the President about six ransom kidnappings that he said were reported in Manila’s Chinatown. The cases, according to reports, were more of extortion using the threat of kidnapping rather than actual physical snatching. But even if this is true, it doesn’t make the cases less worrisome.

The President bared the cases as the US embassy issued a travel alert, warning its citizens to stay away from certain popular tourist destinations in southern Cebu because of the threat of kidnapping. The travel alert did not pinpoint any particular group posing the threat, which was confirmed by Philippine security officials.

The Abu Sayyaf is the most notorious kidnapping group in the south, but it has confined itself to Mindanao. If the Abu Sayyaf plans to expand its operations to the Visayas, notably the popular whale shark-watching coastal town of Oslob in Cebu, which is covered by the US advisory, the bandits must be quickly stopped in their tracks.

Any resurgence of the kidnapping scourge in Metro Manila must also be nipped in the bud. The threat surged in the 1990s, targeting mainly Chinese Filipinos who initially were reluctant to report kidnappings to the police. The eventual cooperation of the target community, combined with a brutal government response that saw the most notorious groups killed in alleged encounters with the police, put an end to the kidnapping spree.

In the south, the Abu Sayyaf continues to rake it in, making P353 million in ransom payments, according to a report, in the first six months of the year alone. The scourge continues because victims pay ransom, the kidnappers get to keep the money, and only a few of them are killed, arrested or penalized in some way for their atrocities. This situation cannot be allowed to prevail as the kidnapping scourge returns to Metro Manila or spreads to other parts of the country.