Cop held for kidnap of South Korean

MANILA, Philippines — A policeman has been arrested and is now detained at the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the kidnapping of a South Korean national two months ago.

Police Officer 2 Frederick Tolentino, 40, a policeman assigned to the Regional Personnel Holding Accounting Unit at the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in Bicutan, Taguig City, was placed under NBI custody on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of businessman Hyun Koo Yeo on April 7.

Special Investigator Pablo Keryao of the NBI Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division said that the police officer was arrested at his  home in BLC Rawis, Tondo, Manila, when one of the cars used in the abduction of Hyun was traced to his name and was spotted by NBI agents parked in his residence.

According to Keryao, Hyun sought the help of the NBI seven days after five men claiming to be NBI agents stopped him on Roxas Boulevard near the Coastal Road in Pasay City around 9 p.m. and pointed a gun at him and his two companions.

“They boarded the complainant’s vehicle and took control of the vehicle which they drove to an unknown location,” Keryao said, adding that the  men demanded P20 million from the Korean in exchange for his release along with his companions.

Hyun managed to give the men P4 million after which he and his two companions were released, with a warning that his family would be killed if he failed to give them P6 million more or reported the incident to the authorities, Keryao said.

Before the victims were released, according to Keryao, Hyun took note of the plate number of one of the vehicles used by the poseurs to escape. It was a silver Toyota Altis with plate No. XHS 721 whose ownership was later traced to Tolentino, Keryao added.

Hyun also learned from the men’s conversations while in his car that one of them was called Alex.

Keryao said an NBI team set up an entrapment operation after Alex sent a text message to the victim demanding the balance of P6 million, which the Korean managed to haggle down to P350,000 after some negotiation. Keryao said the the suspect agreed to meet on May 8 at the Shell Station near Jollibee Magallanes in Makati City.

But the suspect, according to the NBI investigator, never showed up for the meeting although his agents noted  the presence of the same Toyota Altis owned by Tolentino at the gas station.

Thinking that the group had detected the presence of the authorities, the NBI team called off their operation a few hours after the agreed meeting time for “security reasons.”

Through the closed-circuit television  footage captured by the security camera at the Shell station, Yeo was able to recognize the suspect named Alex and Tolentino as well. The two suspects with their three other cohorts were at the station at the time of the entrapment operation but never approached Hyun.

Keryao said the identification of Tolentino as one of Hyun’s captors pushed them to conduct a record check and a follow-up operation on the police officer involved.

It was later learned that Tolentino had a pending warrant for his arrest from the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 261 for violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act.

In his affidavit to the NBI following his arrest, Tolentino admitted being part of the group who abducted Hyun but claimed he had been misled by a colleague from the National Philippine Police Academy—one Police Officer 2 Allan Villaluz— into believing he was joining an operation against an illegal online gambling business run by a Korean. He said it was only when they already had Hyun in custody that he learned his companions were pretending to be NBI agents.

In his statement, Tolentino identified his cohorts as Police Officer 3 Boyet Villaluz and two Japanese nationals named Yuji and Kenji. He said they were also working and coordinating with Hyun’s driver named Leo, an alias “Boy Negro” and an unidentified civilian who provided important details about the Korean.

He added that Allan Villaluz gave him P50,000 after the Korean was released although he was not expecting the amount.

Keryao said the NBI was enhancing the CCTV footage captured at the Shell station to get a clear picture of the other suspects’ faces so they could be identified and arrested.

With a report from Jacqueline Arias, PDI trainee