Filipino-Chinese trader abducted in Angeles City

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – The co-owner of an Angeles City construction supply company was abducted by men wearing bonnet masks on Thursday, March 17. 

In a daring abduction executed by several men at around 8:30 am, the suspects forcibly dragged into a white van the businessman who co-owns a construction supply firm.

The abduction occurred along Jake Gonzales Boulevard in Malabanias village. Witnesses told police the van’s plate number was NBQ 278.

One witness said he was working at a shop when he saw the businessman walking toward the hardware store.

“Then a white van stopped by his side and several men, they were all wearing bonnets and long sleeves, their faces were covered, and (they) dragged him into the white van…about 8 of them. He was shouting for help,” a witness said in Filipino.

Witnesses said the white van sped northward to the city proper, passing a police station located only some 160 meters away from where the abduction took place.

One witness rode his bicycle and followed the van up to the police station where he reported the incident to the police.

A flash alarm was issued by the police but the van was no longer tracked.

A police source said the mobile phone of the victim was traced to nearby Mexico town.

Investigators believe that the suspects proceeded to Mexico town through Mining village in Angeles, Pampanga.

In a Facebook post late last year, Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan thanked the businessman for donating a one-horsepower jetmatic water pump for the vegetable garden of homeowners association at Angeles Heights Resettlement, a housing center for typhoon victims, in Sapalibutad village. – Rappler.com