Taiwan teenager abducted in RP

Taiwan teenager abducted in RP

MANILA (Reuter): Kidnappers have seized a teenage son of an official of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines and demanded a ransom of 15 million pesos (US$580,000), a Manila newspaper said yesterday.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, quoting an unnamed source, said the teenager was abducted last Thursday near the gate of the International School in Manila's Makati financial district, where children of many foreign diplomats and businessmen study.

There was no official confirmation of the report. "We have not received any report about it," Sgt. Leonardo Timtiman of the Makati police said by telephone.

Families of kidnap victims in the Philippines generally refuse to cooperate with police because of widespread suspicion that policemen themselves are either members of kidnap gangs or their protectors.

Kidnap gangs last year abducted 199 people around the country, many of them sons of rich Filipino-Chinese businessmen, and collected at least $4.3 million in ransom.