Philippines vows justice for handcuffed Chinese man who fell to death
- Yang Kang died after escaping from a sixth floor window
- It is thought he was being held captive over unpaid debts; police say they are closing in on his employer
The Philippine National Police spokesperson Bernard Banac told the South China Morning Post the force was closing in on the Chinese employer of the dead man, Yang Kang.
The employer is wanted on illegal detention charges, Banac said, after reports suggested Yang was being held captive over unpaid debts. He fell to his death while trying to escape on August 11 from the sixth floor of a building in Las Piñas City near Metro Manila.
Closed-circuit television footage released by the national police showed Yang peering from the window before detaching its grills and climbing out. The building’s security guard found Kang’s dead body. Kang had been handcuffed.
In a series of tweets, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr said the Philippine government would bring the killer to justice and would allow Chinese investigators into the country to help solve the crime, if local police were not able to. “That is international practice,” he tweeted.
He said if the Philippines allowed Chinese nationals to be hurt, Filipino workers in the Chinese mainland – there are about 12,000 of them – would “pay”.