Singapore businessmen a kidnap risk in RP

Singapore businessmen a kidnap risk in RP

MANILA (AFP): Singapore businessmen have become a kidnap risk in the Philippines, police said on Wednesday, but their plight has been overshadowed by the focus on rebels holding 28 U.S. and Filipino hostages in the south.

Four Singaporeans are reported to have been abducted since April, but details only came to light when businessman Roger Yeo met his armed kidnappers' ransom demands to end nine days in captivity.

The Singapore embassy here confirmed two kidnappings involving Singaporeans and a third, failed attempt, but it did not name the victims or provide further details.

"We are giving priority" to halting the abductions, President Gloria Arroyo said, announcing a "super-body" of key government agencies to coordinate law enforcement efforts.

Arroyo on Wednesday rejected criticism that she had failed to deliver in her first five months in power, saying her cabinet may lack an "Einstein" but it is honest and hardworking.

Asked to comment on press observations that the government has not made any major breakthroughs, Arroyo said she was doing her best to lift an economy that has been ravaged by graft and corruption.

She did not "have ambitions of making a great president," and her main concern was to bring transparency back to governance. "Upright citizens" with untarnished records were appointed as cabinet ministers to help her do her job, she said.

"So maybe I do not have an Einstein in my cabinet, but I have some pretty bright people in my cabinet," she said. "And we don't call that a breakthrough, but it's a cabinet that is going to bring us forward and help us solve all the problems of our country."

National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Thompson Lantion said on government television: "It appears that they (kidnappers) are really targeting businessmen from Singapore." But this was downplayed by Interior Secretary Jose Lina, who said: "We still have to gather more details to make that particular conclusion."

A Singapore embassy official insisted that Lantion's remarks had been misinterpreted.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the police official told him Manila did not want to portray the Singapore businessmen as being singled out by the kidnappers.

Lina said he and other officials would meet soon with the Singapore envoy "to assess what has happened to some Singaporean nationals."

Yeo was freed on Saturday after his family paid an estimated S4300,000 (US$166,000) in ransom. He has since returned to Singapore.

"We know who the suspects are, but we cannot pursue them because the victim would not like to complain," said Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto, head of the police criminal investigation division.

Lantion said: "We don't want to be alarmist here (in saying) that foreign nationals are being targeted particularly. "But we'd like to take precautions. We have a saying here -- forewarned is forearmed."

Singapore businessmen in the Philippines said on Wednesday they have taken extra care, including taking armed bodygyards. But they said they were not bothered by the threats and would continue doing business in the country.

"Basically, kidnapings are an everyday affair here, so it doesn't bother most Singaporeans," said businessman Christopher Bek, a member of the Singapore-Philippines (business) Association told the Straits Times Television.

Singapore's foreign ministry said that it had asked Manila to ensure the safety of Singaporeans and advised its nationals to exercise extra care and caution here.

Ethnic Chinese Filipinos and overseas Chinese are often targeted by kidnappers in the Philippines because they are more willing to pay a ransom than seek police help.

Filipino anti-crime groups have alleged that some rogue police officers are involved in kidnap gangs.