By AARON RECUENCO
Police have rescued a Chinese manager of a Philippine-based steel trading company following the arrest of eight of his abductors in a follow-up operation in Canlubang, Laguna.
The catch is that the negotiator for the R15 million ransom demand in exchange for the release of Huang Bo Yu was allegedly done by a convicted leader of a kidnap-for-ransom group who is currently detained at the National Bilibid Prisons – Tyrone dela Cruz.
Dela Cruz was sentenced to life imprisonment on a case of kidnap-for-ransom in 2013. He was arrested in November 2014 but was found out to have been also involved in three more cases of kidnap-for-ransom before his arrest.
Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao, head of the police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG), said that dela Cruz negotiated for the release of Huang through a cellular phone believed to have been sneaked inside his jail.
“The initial ransom demand is R15 million but it was reduced to PR2.5 million,” said Dumlao.
Huang, manager of the Gold Star Stainless Steel Trading, was kidnapped on June 24 in his store in Cabuyao, Laguna.
Dumlao said Huang was supposed to be released near the Canlubang Golf Club in June 28. It was then that they conducted the operation which resulted in the arrest of the suspects and his rescue.
Nabbed were Ronald Piloton, Joseph Hibek, Michael Austria, Jowie Talagsad. Those who remain at large were Marlon Sangalang, Romeo Bacuto, Bernardo Atienza, Mark Anthony Sabugo.
