AFTER President Rodrigo Duterte claimed receiving reports of at least six kidnapping incidents in Manila’s Binondo district, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada ordered the Manila Police District to strengthen its presence in the city’s Chinatown.
“I have asked the police to look into these kidnapping reports. Our priority now is to protect the community and identify and go after those kidnap-for-ransom gangs, if there are any,” Estrada said.
Estrada tasked MPD director Senior Supt. Joel Coronel to coordinate with the Filipino-Chinese community and barangay officials in Binondo and see if a coordinated security arrangement could be worked out to thwart those alleged kidnappings.
In an effort to reassure their safety, Estrada also called on the Binondo residents to calm down but remain vigilant, and cooperate with the MPD and the city government to stop those supposed kidnappings.
Reports of kidnap-for-ransom cases in Binondo have stirred the local population and even went viral in the social media, with Teresita Ang-Sy, chairman of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, alerting the local Filipino-Chinese community through text messages about the need to take extra precautions.
Duterte mentioned the alleged series of kidnappings in Binondo during his speech at the convention of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in Manila last week, saying drug syndicates have already “shifted” to kidnapping due to his administration’s war on drugs.
Coronel said they will be assigning 20 more uniformed policemen in the Binondo district “to preempt any possible cases of kidnappings.”
“As ordered by the mayor, MPD will strengthen its police presence in the Binondo area, so I’ll be assigning additional policemen from headquarters to augment the Binondo Police Station purposely to increase our police visibility, beat and mobile patrol,” Coronel said.
Coronel said they will also coordinate with the barangay officials and school administrators to secure schoolchildren who appeared to be the specific targets of kidnap-for-ransom groups.
“And number two, we will coordinate strongly with the [PNP] Anti-Kidnapping Group which has jurisdiction over these cases, and investigate the reports there may have been incidents of kidnapping of Chinese nationals that are connected with the illegal drug trade,” the MPD chief added.
Based on his initial talks with Ang-Sy, Coronel pointed out that there were only five cases of kidnapping in Manila since January, which he said is relatively low compared to the previous years where 20 cases are reported for every six months.
“She (Ang-Sy) said that they have no reports of kidnapping incidents, especially in the last three weeks. So there are no reported, I repeat, no reported kidnapping incidents in Binondo in the past several weeks. It’s not true,” Coronel said.
He said it is also possible that those “kidnappings” were actually of Chinese nationals who were either arrested or killed in the anti-drug operations, or those who simply “disappeared” because of illegal drug activities.