South Korean tourists enjoy horse-back riding in Baguio City’s Wright Park on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2012. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/RICK ALBERTO
MANILA, Philippines–The Korean Embassy in Manila has expressed alarm over the rising number of deaths of its nationals who had become victims of crimes here and said that if this trend continued, Korean would be discouraged from coming to the Philippines.
In a statement, the Korean embassy said that so far, nine Koreans have died in violent crimes since January.
The latest case involved a Korean businessman who was killed last July 27 in a car-jacking, the embassy said. The man’s wife was also abducted but was later released unharmed and police have arrested the family driver “for possible involvement in the crime,” it said.
The embassy also mentioned the abduction and murder last March of 21-year-old student named Lee Ji Won, noting that one of the suspects in his murder included a taxi driver. It also said the “brutal and senseless crime (against Lee) rattled the Korean community in the Philippines.”
“The rising incidence of crimes committed against Koreans while in the Philippines either on vacation or on business is a trend that has alarmed the Embassy of the Republic of Korea,” the embassy said.
Gov’t help sought
It said Korean Ambassador Hyuk Lee has sought the help of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police and the Office of the President “in the hope that an intensified effort on the part of the Philippine government to curb criminality will lead to a safer environment for Korean nationals.”
Ambassador Lee has asked law enforcement agencies to undertake measures to “prevent motor vehicles, taxi cabs in particular, from being used as means to commit crimes, or from being targeted for kidnapping or carnapping by organized criminal syndicates.”
The implementation of these measures will help ease the anxiety of Koreans “who have been coming to the Philippines in greater numbers either as tourists or as investors.”
“With the favorable economic climate under the administration of President Aquino, more and more Koreans have been manifesting their interest to invest in the Philippines. It is feared that if crimes against innocent Koreans persist, businessmen will avoid the Philippines and seek safer places for doing business,” the embassy said.
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