House commends NBI for saving kidnap boy

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By JUNE S. BLANCO

 

THE House of Representatives recently commended the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for rescuing a Burmese boy from his kidnappers.

Rep. Erico Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol) introduced House Resolution 2599 commending the NBI under Director Nonnatus Caesar Rojas and Deputy Director for Regional Operations Virgilio Mendez Jr. for rescuing eight-year old Reynald Chew who was kidnapped for ranson in Biñan, Laguna.

Aumentado said with clearance from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the NBI fielded an operation that rescued Chew from the clutches of the armed men who had demanded a P20-million ransom from the boy’s parents whom they had apparently mistook to be the owners of a food processing factory in Laguna.

The case, however, turned out to be one of mistaken identity. The parents, Kyi Maung Chew and Khin Khin Lin turned out to be mere laborers of the factory, and could not raise the ransom.

The kidnapers had kept the boy in Taytay, Rizal while ransom negotiations went on with the Philippine National police Anti-Kidnap Group handling the case and Chew’s parents.

But an operative of the NBI counter-terrorism division tipped off Mendez that a Chinese-looking boy was seen in the company of armed men inside a house in Taytay, prompting the securing of clearance from de Lima. Mendez led the operation that resulted in Chew’s rescue in the morning of June 26 from a house in Pinesville Subdivision.

Chew revealed that he was kidnapped in Biñan four days earlier. Mendez and his team brought him to the NBI headquarters in Manila where he was reunited with his parents.

After a press briefing by de Lima in Rojas’ office, the NBI turned him over to the PNP anti-kidnap group.

Aumentado said the feat deserves emulation by law enforcers and commendation from the House of Representatives to encourage the NBI and other law enforcing agencies and institutions to perform their job of maintaining peace and order well, and to aim for rescue operations done with dispatch and without endangering the lives and limbs of kidnap victim or victims.