Despair as kidnap toll grows

TWO groups formed to protect the ethnic Chinese community from kidnaps-for-ransom say they may disband because their efforts are futile.

'We are thinking of packing it in because we are wasting our time,' chairman of Citizens Action Against Crime (CAAC), Professor Teresita Ang See, said.

She is sending her family overseas for safety.

'More than 90 Chinese have been kidnapped in the Philippines this year, including nine during August,' she said.

'Most kidnaps-for-ransom were carried out by organised gangs which have operated unmolested for several years because they are protected by high-ranking police officials.' The CAAC and sister organisation, the Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO), headed by Senator Nikki Coseteng, said they had no one in the police force they could trust since the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) was disbanded.

'Many senior PACC officers were of Chinese extraction, while the newly formed Task Force Dragon is drawn from many sources and we don't know who we can rely on to help the Chinese community,' Professor Ang See said.

'Past experience has shown there are many double agents in these multi-faceted organisations.' The professor said there was considerable evidence of police protection which allowed the gangs to operate unmolested in kidnap 'capitals' such as Manila, Zamboanga and Cotabato.