By Jeffrey Damicog
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has rescued in Las Piñas City eight Chinese nationals who were tortured and forced by their captors to pay their gambling debts.
(JEFFREY DAMICOG / MANILA BULLETIN)
NBI Assistant Director Eric Distor said a Filipino and eight Chinese nationals involved in the abduction were arrested.
Distor identified the arrested Chinese as Ben Tan, Haitao Wang, Dechun Qin, Yong Fei Chan, Xiao Qiang Yang, Dong Zheng Wen, Beijun Lin, and Jung Wang, all of whom entered the country through tourist visas.
The Filipino was identified as Jomar Lozada.
They were arrested by a team from of the NBI’s Criminal Intelligence Division (NBI-CRID) last July 11 at a house in Las Piñas where the Chinese victims have been kept.
Seized during the operation were two handguns, mobile phones and cash.
NBI-CID Chief Sixto Comia said the victims were abducted at various times by the suspects.
“There are many cases where this group has lent money to Chinese gamblers who lost here in the country,” Comia said.
“When they lose again, they are asked to pay up double or more,” he said.
Some of the victims were tortured and their photographs sent to their families to force them to pay up.
He said the NBI was able to trace the house where the victims were being held after one of them, who was allowed to use a mobile phone to talk to his wife, secretly activated the phone’s GPS.