From: news@netnews.upenn.edu (USENET News System)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: Police Break Kidnap Ring
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:50:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: microlab.-131092165037
Followup-To: soc.culture.filipino
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


	MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- Police shot dead one suspected kidnapper
and arrested nine others, including a police officer and a soldier, in
an escalating crackdown Monday against kidnap gangs terrorizing the
powerful Chinese-Filipino community.
	Officers armed with assault rifles also began guarding 20 private
Chinese schools in the capital to protect students from gangs that have
snatched at least 26 ethnic Chinese since August.
	``We are happy to see the policemen at our school,'' said Chua Chow
Kiet, vice president of the Chiang Kai-Shek College, some of whose 6,000
students have been abducted. ``Kidnapping happens at any time, and we do
not know when they will strike.''
	Gen. Raul Imperial, deputy director of the Philippine National
Police, said eight of the suspects, including the one who was killed,
were behind the torture-slaying of two ethnic Chinese kidnap victims
last month.
	The September killing of Myron Uy and Kenneth Go, despite their
families' paying a $60,000 ransom, galvanized outrage in the Chinese-
Filipino community over the wave of kidnappings. Other victims had been
released after large ransoms were paid.
	Several families in the community, which controls retail sales and
holds large stakes in other industries, reportedly fled the country
after the killings.
	Imperial said police raided the kidnap gang's safehouse in Batangas
province, 50 miles south of Manila, before dawn Monday, killing one
suspect, who was a former Air Force sergeant.
	Seven others were arrested in the raid, one of them an active police
officer, another a member of the Philippine Navy.
	In a separate incident, two other suspected kidnappers were arrested
on the outskirts of Manila after their victim escaped and alerted
police, authorities said.
	The operations brought to 58 the number of suspected kidnappers
arrested since President Fidel Ramos took office June 30, the PNP said.
Four other suspects have been killed.
	Ramos praised authorities in a news briefing Monday for their ``fast
action to track down and hit the confirmed criminal groups.'' He urged
witnesses and victims' families to ``immediately come forward with
timely information'' to aid investigations.
	Many victims of kidnapping and other crimes are reluctant to turn to
authorities because of growing evidence that military and police
officials are linked to the gangs.
	The country's communist insurgency criticized the government's anti-
crime drive and said its armed wing, the New People's Army, would do the
job instead.
	In a statement sent to news agencies, the communist National
Democratic Front said the police and military had ``neither the
determination nor the capability'' to stop kidnapping and other crime.
	``It is therefore the unquestionable task of the NPA to deal blows on
these malefactors in order to eradicate criminality,'' the statement
said.
	The 13,500-strong NPA has been fighting the Manila government for 23
years. Police have often blamed abductions on the NPA, which has denied
responsibility.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino