Fil-Chinese businessmen express grave concern

ALARMED businessmen and rich families in Dagupan City have asked the police to step up its monitoring and counter-measures against kidnap-for-ransom gangs believed to have descended anew in the city after a long spell.

The nervous concern from the business sector came following the leak of a tightly-hidden private negotiation last week to secure the safe release of two children of a prominent Filipino-Chinese businessman who were kidnapped close to their residence last November 15.

The children, both girls aged 12 and 10, were released two days later last November 17 somewhere in San Fabian town after a P2 million ransom money was reportedly paid by the victims’ family in an undisclosed place in Baguio City.

Full circumstances of the negotiations with the kidnappers were not revealed by sources close to the police considering an on-going follow-up operations of the authorities against the perpetrators.

The victims’ identities have not been disclosed.

The Eastern Pangasinan Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, speaking thru its president, Rosendo So said in a press statement that law enforcement officials should step up their monitoring of criminal elements like the kidnap-for-ransom gangs to ensure that similar kidnapping cases do not happen again.

The Chamber called for better intelligence operations and setting up of checkpoints aas countermeasures against kidnappers and other criminals.