Six Chinese nationals have been arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the kidnapping of three of their compatriots who owed them P7 million in gambling money.
NBI Deputy Director Vicente de Guzman III identified three of the arrested Chinese as Junrong Jia, Xuenjian Li, and Quijin Tian, all of whom are facing criminal complaints before the Paranaque City Prosecutor’s Office for kidnapping and violation of the Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998.
The three other arrested Chinese identified as Peter Lim Santos, Wang Liping, and Au Pang Liang are also facing bribery complaints in violation of the Revised Penal Code.
Junrong Jia, Xuejian Li, and Quijin Tian were arrested last May 31 by agents of the NBI’s Cybercrime Division in a hotel in Paranaque City.
During the operation, NBI agents rescued three Chinese businessmen aged 40 to 50 years old.
De Guzman said that the three victims were enticed to come to the country to gamble in the casinos with the promise of funding from loan sharks.
However, the three victims failed to pay their gambling loans and, thus, abducted by the suspects who demanded P7 million from the victims’ families in exchange for their release.
De Guzman said NBI agents acted on the complaints of the victims’ families who revealed that the victims were being held in the hotel in Paranaque.
Following the rescue operation, Peter Lim Santos, Wang Liping, and Au Pang Liang surfaced and offered a P1 million bribe to NBI agents in exchange for the release of Junrong Jia, Xuejian Li, and Quijin Tian.
Because of this, the NBI set up an entrapment and arrested Peter Lim Santos, Wang Liping, and Au Pang Liang who were caught in possession of a bag full of money amounting to a total of P570,000 inside the office of the CCD chief. (Jeffrey Damicog)