When Chinese national Lin Han Zhang arrived in the Philippines last year, his goal was to scout for business opportunities.
Ironically, this month, he himself was seen as a “business opportunity” by corrupt cops.
READ: Viral photo drama: several cops allegedly involved in kidnapping
Lin has since escaped from the bad cops’ clutches, but his story gives us an insight on how these people operate.
“Lin was about to ride the train at the Light Rail Transit’s Monumento station at around 4pm on Tuesday, September 9, when two men handcuffed him and took him to a vehicle driven by a third man,” reports Rey Galupo in The Philippine Star.
Lin, through an interpreter, releated that “his kidnappers talked to someone on their cellphone first before they demanded PHP8-million from him.”
They threatened him that they would “plant shabu” on him.
Lin said that later that day he was brought to a Malolos police station. He said he managed to escape from the car at around 11pm after his kidnappers fell asleep.
The report explained: “Lin then boarded a bus to Balintawak, took a cab and told the driver to take him to Quiapo, Manila. Lin panicked when he saw police officers manning a checkpoint in Quiapo. He ran until he reached the Manila Golf Club in Intramuros, where a security guard saw him roaming in the golf course and alerted police officers manning the Intramuros precinct.”
At that point, Lin, thankfully, had run into some good cops.
READ: Fake cop extorts money from motorists
On Wednesday night, Sep 10, Lin identified Police Officer 3 Danilo Sytamco Jr. and Police Officer 2 Zerzes Sarmiento, both assigned to the Malolos police’s anti-drug unit, from the station’s photo gallery.
According to a source who wished to remain anonymous, Lin also referred to a third man, who reportedly drove a white Honda Civic (ATA-888) used in the kidnapping. That man has yet to be identified “because he was not in the pictures and he left the vehicle.”
The report added, though, that “the vehicle was traced to its former owner, Arlene Lustre of Calumpit, Bulacan, who claimed that she had sold the white 1993 model Civic to a certain PO1 Dan Dan Sytamco.”
According to Caloocan police chief Senior Superintendent Ariel Arcinas, one of the accused, Sarmiento, escaped an attempt to take him into custody at his house in Dagat-dagatan on Thursday morning, September 11.
The report said that Caloocan police officers also went to the Manila Police District on Thursday afternoon “to work on transferring the case to the Northern Police District.”
The report did not say anything about Sytamco.
Photo by Mithril Cloud (WikiCommons)
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