No isolated incidents

SKETCHES

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Apart from the global trade conflagration that US President Donald Trump has ignited, Philippine businessmen now have an additional serious concern: being kidnapped for ransom.

The Philippine National Police (PNP), it seems, shrugged off the kidnapping of a teenage student of British School Manila last February because both the boy and the kidnappers were Chinese nationals. But the 14-year-old student's driver was a Filipino who was executed by the kidnappers. And if the PNP knew the suspects were Chinese nationals linked to Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO), how come no one has been arrested?

Sometime during the boy's weeklong captivity, his pinkie was mutilated, with his family being sent a gruesome video of the finger being chopped off.

The PNP said no ransom was paid, but this was as unbelievable as its story of its "rescue" of the boy, who was actually abandoned by the kidnappers along Macapagal Boulevard in Parañaque.

A family that can afford to send a boy to the British School has to be wealthy. The kidnappers reportedly made a huge amount from that caper, and in US dollars.

Since no one has been arrested or "neutralized," it's not surprising that another kidnapping for ransom was staged just weeks later, this time targeting a Chinese-Filipino.

We don't know if the PNP is looking at the same POGO-linked suspects in the kidnapping of the boy and businessman Anson Que (a.k.a. Anson Tan), owner of Elison Steel in Valenzuela. Until late Wednesday night, we could get no details from PNP officials.