Missing 14-year-old Chinese national found in Parañaque – PNP
Police find a missing 14-year-old Chinese national (middle) along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque City on Tuesday evening, Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo from the PNP)
MANILA, Philippines — A missing 14-year-old Chinese national was found along Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque City on Tuesday evening, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the PNP said the minor was immediately reunited with his father and brought to a private hospital in Taguig City for a medical examination.
The Chinese national was last seen in Taguig City on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 20, after he was dismissed from his school and picked up by his driver but did not make it home.
READ: PNP: Father of abducted Chinese teen has Pogo connections
According to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla in a Palace press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, the vehicle used to pick up the Chinese national was subsequently found abandoned along C5 Road. He did not say when it was found.
On Friday, Feb. 21, the teenager’s parents reported to Taguig police that he was missing.
That same day, the Chinese national’s driver was found dead in another vehicle in San Rafael town, Bulacan province.
“[T]hat vehicle yielded information regarding the syndicate which operates in this manner. The contents of that include pictures, conversations, cellphone numbers, strategies, casings of how they would do the job,” Remulla said.
The suspected captors then demanded US$20 million for the teenager’s release.
Further, according to Remulla, a video of the Chinese national getting his right pinky finger cut off began circulating on Saturday, Feb. 22; then the parents received a video of their child as proof of life on Sunday, Feb. 23.
“Where they called and where they kept the child were two separate places. But they had many phone numbers to trace,” the interior secretary explained.
The PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) then found a ping from one of the cellphones of the abductors on Monday, Feb. 24; then another signal from one of the suspected captors’ vehicles on Tuesday, Feb. 25, the latter prompting a hot pursuit operation.
“At approximately 8 p.m., they were a few hundred meters away from the cellphone that was moving,” Remulla said.
“In that pursuit, a few minutes after, in the Parañaque area, they saw a child in pajamas, standing in the middle of the road with a bandaged hand)” he added.
The initial US$20-million demand was downgraded into a US$1-million until no ransom was paid, Remulla said.
READ: Remains of 2 Chinese kidnapped in Alabang in 2023 found buried in Cavite
The father of the victim was linked to the Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) industry, according to PNP public information chief Col. Randulf Tuaño.
Tuaño added that the incident may have been a case of Chinese nationals against other Chinese nationals.
“We will continue to strengthen our intelligence-gathering and operational capabilities to prevent similar incidents. The safety of every resident, Filipino or foreign, is our top priority,” PNP Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil said in the statement.
The police force previously reported that the Anti-Kidnapping Group logged 40 cases from January 2024 to February 2025, 10 of which involved Chinese nationals as victims.
The PNP attributed the cases to “continuing challenges posed by criminal syndicates operating in the aftermath of the Pogo shutdown.”
First posted 9:56 am
