Mindanao’s Image as RP’s Kidnap Capital Disproved

DAVAO CITY– In the eyes of the outside world, Mindanao is a land of never-ending conflict. The emergence of the Abu Sayyaf as well as the Pentagon Gang reinforced the perception that, aside from the Moro and Communist rebellions currently raging in Mindanao, the island is the kidnap capital of the Philippines, if not in the whole of Asia. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

By Carlos H. Conde 
Bulatlat.com

DAVAO CITY– In the eyes of the outside world, Mindanao is a land of never-ending conflict. The emergence of the Abu Sayyaf as well as the Pentagon Gang reinforced the perception that, aside from the Moro and Communist rebellions currently raging in Mindanao, the island is the kidnap capital of the Philippines, if not in the whole of Asia. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

According to documents obtained from the Manila-based Citizens Action Against Crime (CAAC), most of the kidnappings from January to October this year took place in Luzon. The documents also said that most kidnap-for-ransom gangs in the country are based not in the hinterlands of Mindanao but in Metro Manila.

The CAAC’s sum-up of kidnapping cases indicates that of the 112 documented kidnappings from January to October, only 25 were committed in Mindanao. Most of the cases – 81 all in all – occurred in Luzon: 43 cases in Metro Manila and 38 cases in the rest of Luzon. Only six were documented in the Visayas.

The CAAC documents also reveal that 171 people were victims in the 112 cases. Within the same period, P84 million was paid by kidnap victims as ransom. Most of the kidnappings in Mindanao happened in January.

Last year, only 29 kidnappings were documented in Mindanao, compared to the 84 cases in Luzon. Visayas only had three cases. The number of cases nationwide in 2001 was 116, involving 237 victims, including the victims of the Abu Sayyaf in Dos Palmas, Palawan, and the 32 hostages from Lamitan, Basilan. Total ransom paid last year, including the so-called “board and lodging” for the kidnappers, was P211 million.

In 2000, however, most of the kidnappings took place in Mindanao, with 49 out of the total 79 cases nationwide. Luzon had 27 cases while Visayas only had 2. The cases include the Sipadan kidnappings, which brought the total number of victims to 219. Although the number of cases was considerably low that year, the ransom paid was the highest ever (a total of P261 million) because of the ransom paid to the Abu Sayyaf by the foreigners in the Sipadan kidnapping, which was P190 million.

In 1999, Mindanao was slightly ahead of Luzon in the number of kidnapping cases, with 39 out of the 76 cases. Luzon had 37 while Visayas registered no case at all. Total number of victims that year was 135 while ransom paid was P14.7 million.

In 1998, Mindanao only had 43 cases compared with Luzon’s 62; Visayas had five cases. The cases involved a total of 188 victims and the ransom paid was P119 million.

Most victims won’t talk

Most of the country’s kidnap victims chose to remain silent while 95 percent of them chose to pay ransom rather than cooperate with the authorities. According to CAAC’s Teresita Ang-See, this is due mainly to the absence of trust between the police and the relatives of the victims.

“It’s very frustrating. There’s no single agency now that we could trust,” See said in a recent interview in Manila. She described the attitude of the police toward kidnapping this way: “The police are too lazy. To the victim, it is a life-and-death issue. To the policemen who deal with it, it is just all in a day’s work. It is very, very frustrating.”

Then there is the victims’ experience with the country’s justice system. In 1993, the two sons of Manila-based Chinese businessman Jepson Dichaves were abducted. Two men were later arrested for the kidnapping: Ernesto Uyboco, a businessman who had supplied materials to the Philippine National Police, and a former colonel in the Army, Wilfredo Macias. They were arrested after receiving a ransom totaling P1.3 million from the Dichaveses.

The Dichaves kidnapping highlighted the level of involvement of soldiers and cops in kidnapping. There were several John Does involved in the kidnapping, one of them an ex-Army sergeant. Macias, who owned a security agency, also tapped his guards who had no assignments to participate in the kidnapping. Moreover, Macias was arrested right in front of Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the AFP.

More importantly, the Dichaves kidnapping highlighted the fact that kidnapping cases take forever to get resolved in the Philippines. Uyboco was found guilty of the crime and was sentenced to three life terms only in September this year – nine years after the kidnapping. (Macias died last July.)

Rich and influential suspects

The suspects were also rich and influential. Uyboco, for one, defies the conventional wisdom that kidnappers are poor folk drawn to crime by poverty. He lived in one of the country’s posh villages in Makati City. He was a successful businessman, having been a supplier of materials to the Philippine National Police, where he was able to befriend influential officials. He even hired a former Supreme Court justice to handle his appeal, which is still pending.

The suspects’ lawyers delayed the case as long as they could.  They would file motions so that trial only started in 1997, after the case was thrown back to the justice department for reinvestigation. And before the conviction, the case went through the hands of four judges: one inhibited himself from trying the case; two got promoted and one retired.

“When the case was starting to drag on for years, we wondered whether we made the right decision. Had we known it would take nine years, we would have hesitated to file the case,” Yusan Dichaves, the mother of the children, said. Ironically, the Dichaveses spent more money in pursuing the case than the ransom payment.

“Typically,” said Mr. Dichaves, “the Chinese won’t report a kidnapping. They’d rather negotiate. This is because they don’t trust the police and it costs so much to pursue the case.”

As a result, the victims’ families would opt to negotiate and eventually pay ransom. “Either that or you get killed. Very, very few get lucky,” CAAC’s See pointed out.

According to See, the silence, the police’s incompetence, the justice system’s inefficiency, and the willingness by the victims to just pay up “make it too easy for kidnappers to get away with it. Kidnappings pay and pay lucratively in the Philippines.”

Because of this, See said, the growth of kidnapping has been exponential: “One successful kidnapping breeds two more kidnappings, which in turn breeds four more kidnappings.” Right now, she added, “we are No. 1 in kidnapping in Asia. During a conference that I attended this year, the Philippines was No. 1 in the world.”

“My worst fear is that people seem to have accepted kidnapping as a part of life,” See said. Bulatlat.com

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