Four Chinese and a Filipina have been charged for kidnapping a Chinese over his gambling debts.
National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Ferdinand Lavin said charges were filed against the suspects before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office where they were presented for inquest.
Charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention were Chinese Dong Daheng, Lu Lihui, Zhang Xiaolin, and Ye Jintao, and Filipina Ann Michelle Melendez.
Lavin said charges were filed after agents of the NBI-Special Action Unit arrested the suspects in a hotel in Pasay.
The NBI official said the suspects were positively identified by the male Chinese victim as those who held him captive at the hotel.
Prior to the suspects’ arrest, the victim was released the same night near the Villamor Airbase in Pasay after his live-in partner and brother paid the suspects P400,000 in ransom money.
The victim had been held against his will since he was taken from a hotel in Pasay City as the suspects demanded that he pay his gambling debts.
Following his abduction, his live-in partner sought the help of the NBI in arresting the suspects. (Jeffrey Damicog)