One of the four leaders of a syndicate behind the kidnapping of a student in a Taguig City exclusive school was able to escape in a police operation in Central Luzon as authorities began aggressive pursuit against those responsible in the abduction.

At the same time, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla disclosed that the family driver of the kidnapped 14-year old Chinese appeared to be in cahoots with the kidnappers.

Remulla said the operation was carried out immediately after the rescue of the kidnapped victim but he had already left the hideout when the police arrived.

“We were on a stakeout last night, somewhere in Central Luzon. Unfortunately, we weren't able to corner him. He had escaped by the time we arrived,” said Remulla.

“But we will find him. We know who he is. We know where he hangs out. We have his numbers. We know his people. And we are almost certain that we will get him pretty soon,” he added.

Remulla said the leader is still in the country. He expressed confidence that he would not be able to escape to China because he is also wanted there. 

Remulla earlier disclosed that there are former policemen and soldiers who composed the Chinese-led syndicate. The former policemen and soldiers, he said, are getting monthly income of P200,000 from the syndicate.

Of the 22 people who compose the syndicate, Remulla said, four of them are considered as leaders while the rest are members, including former Filipino soldiers and policemen.

The driver

As police investigators dig deeper into the case, Remulla said the driver was recently hired by the family of the kidnapped victim and appeared to be in cahoots with the syndicate.

That driver was found dead inside one of the two abandoned cars—the first abandoned was found along C5 Road and the other was in San Rafael, Bulacan where the cadaver was discovered.

It was the driver who picked up the boy in his school in Taguig City on Feb. 20 and according to Remulla, the boy began sending message to his father that the driver was taking a different route on their way home.

The boy and his family live within the Bonifacio Global City area and according to the boy during the debriefing, they transferred into another car.

The involvement of the driver was established when police began checking on the content of his cellular phone.  

“According to the contents of the cell phone of the driver—but he is not here to defend himself anymore---but according to the contents, he was in cahoots with the perpetrators of the crime. He was part of the syndicate. And according to the information that we got, he was only an employee for one month before the incident happened,” said Remulla. 

Psychopaths 

Remulla described the suspects as psychopaths as he confirmed that they cut a finger of the boy in an attempt to force his family to pay the $20 million ransom—which was captured in a video sent to his family.

“These people are barbaric. They have crossed the line of being human already. They've lost all conscience, they are psychopaths, they will do anything to gain an advantage,” said Remulla.

This became the motivation among the police to conduct the operation in the soonest possible time and with the help of modern technology using the cellphone numbers retrieved from the cellular phone of the slain driver, they were able to locate the victim and the suspect.

Remulla said the suspects were forced to abandon the victim as the cops started chasing them. He insisted that no ransom was paid, despite reducing the demand to $1 million. 

POGO link

According to Remulla, the syndicate apparently knows the wealth source of the victim’s family as they all used to be connected to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

“it seems like the perpetrators knew of the source of wealth and they knew of the amount of wealth that they had. That's why their demands were according to what they had in the bank,” said Remulla.