This has got to be one of the strangest kidnapping cases anyone has heard of.
A 19-year-old student of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran was found by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in a house in Tondo, Manila after he was abducted by several students. The mastermind, it turned out, was allegedly one of his classmates.
The victim, who wants to be named only as Roy, was waiting for a bus near the central station of the Light Railway Transit on Aug. 1 with his classmate, named Jhulius Atabay. Three men allegedly grabbed them and forced them to board a van, according to ABS-CBN’s report.
Roy alleges that the suspects pointed a gun at him, then tied his hands and gagged his mouth with packing tape. They did not do the same to Atabay, who was later released.
The victim’s father received a call from Atabay past 9pm. Atabay informed the father of Roy’s kidnapping and the ransom demand of PHP30 million (more than US$567,019).
According to the victim’s father, Atabay gave inconsistent details which raised his suspicions. The father then reported the matter to the police.
Said the head of the PNP’s anti-kidnapping group Glen Dumlao: “He didn’t want to turn over the phone used in the negotiations. Kidnappers spoke to him and he relayed their messages to the victim’s family, which is unusual.”
The police tracked Atabay and arrested him in Balut, Tondo in Manila, where they also saw the victim. His cohorts were arrested as well.
According to Rappler, the other suspects were schoolmates from Letran, Ferdinand dela Vega Jr., and Ralph Emmanuel Camaya. The other suspect, Justine Mahipus, is from the College of St. Benilde. All of them point to Atabay as the mastermind.
Meanwhile, other suspects remain at large: Letran students Eriek Candava, Billy Rocillo, Miguel Austria, and Kim Pascua; Far Eastern University student Gabriel Rabi; and a student from a Parañaque-based flying school named Arvi Velasquez.
Roy’s father said the young men deserve to be in jail. He told ABS-CBN in Filipino: “Imagine, they’re so young, 19 years old. They’re already thinking about that [kidnapping]. They will victimize other people.”
