The police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) advised all policemen, especially community precincts and police stations located near casinos, to be wary of small groups of Chinese turning over foreigners as the police force could be unwittingly exploited in extortion rackets.
This, as four male Chinese took a video of their countryman inside the detention cell of the Pasay City Police Station and used it to demand huge sum of money from his relatives in China.
AKG spokesman Lt. Col. Elmer Cereno said it all started when 25-year-old Xiaoguo Bian tourist was enticed to play in a casino in Pasay City late last month.
Xiaoguo was given a P1.5 million loan by the group of arrested suspect Libu Xu which he used to play bacarrat at Midas Casino. He lost.
Unable to pay his loan plus an interest of P500,000, Cereno said Xiaogu was detained in a hotel where he was beaten. The video of the torture was reportedly sent to China to force his family to pay 300,000 Rinminbee (or some P2.2 million).
After failing to get the money, the suspects took Xiaogu to the Pasay City Police Station on August 11 wherein the suspects told the police that they would file a case against Xiaogu.
“The duty investigator was busy that time so he decided to temporarily placed the victim inside the detention cell before he could attend to the complaint of the Chinese,” said Cereno.
Unknown to the police duty investigator, one of the four Chinese took a video of Xiaogu inside the detention cell and sent the footage to his family to further force them to pay.
Cereno said Xiaogu was released after the police investigator found no sufficient evidence to pursue the case since the four Chinese suspects did not also present pieces of evidence for the supposed debt that the victim has to pay.
Cereno said they learned of the incident on August 15 after the father of Xiaogu arrived and sought their assistance as his son was locked up in police jail.
The backtracking of the case and review of some closed-circuit televisio resulted in the rescue of Xiaogu inside a condo unit in Pasay City.
Libu was arrested during the rescue operation.
“We are now conducting follow-up operation against the other suspects,” said Cereno.
Cereno said the case of Xiaogu should be a warning to all policemen to be careful in dealing with a small group of Chinese bringing in a foreigner suspect.
“They should be very careful. If they encounter this kind of modus, they have to immediately inform the AKG,” said Cereno.
The official said this is the first time that they encountered a video footage of a casino-related kidnapping being used in extortion.
The AKG has reported 53 cases of casino-related kidnappings in Metro Manila since 2017, almost all of the victims and the suspects are Chinese.
The AKG attributed the increase in casino-related kidnapping to the rise of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) which are now employing more or less 200,000 Chinese.
Cereno said more than 120 Chinese were already arrested in AKG operations since 2017, all for casino-related kidnappings. All of them, he said, were charged. (Aaron Recuenco)
