Crime and
Retribution 2
True Crime Stories
(From the Jurisprudential
Files of the Philippine Judiciary)
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2nd E-book Volume
Second Ternary Collection:
Ransom, Robbery and Homicide
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By
N. Madera Aguilar
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Crime and Retribution 2
Published by the Author
In E-Book Form
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011
By N. Madera Aguilar
All Rights Reserved
By the Author
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To All Law-abiding Citizens
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One
The Ransom Seekers
Mila, a fourteen-year old doctor’s daughter, together with her three minor adopted brothers, Ace, Jack and Mel, left their residence situated in one of the posh villages in Metro Manila bound for a sectarian school in the adjoining city where she was a second-year high school student one early morning in November, 2001.
They were on board a van driven by Herman. Aris, another driver of Mila’s family rode in the passenger seat. Mila and her nanny, Ela, were seated at the second row of the van, while the three boys sat at the third row.
On their way to school, they passed along a wide avenue and crossed a strategic bridge before proceeding to the school site. While approaching a street corner, the van abruptly stopped. Herman sounded the van’s horn, but an SUV they were following slowly moved backward, prompting him to blow the van’s horn again. Yet, the SUV continued to move backwards until it hit the front portion of the van. Four armed men, dressed in black and carrying long firearms, disembarked from the SUV with Herman thinking at first that they were police officers and that they were poised to accost him for a traffic violation. Two of the men went to Herman’s side, while the other two positioned themselves at the right side of the van near Aris.
The two men at Herman’s side, one of whom was identified as Jose, aimed and poked their guns at the vehicle’s window and demanded for Herman open the door of the van. When the doors opened, the two men standing at the opposite side of the van aimed their guns at Aris, pulled him outside, pushed him to face a nearby wall with his hands up, and frisked his body. Herman was forced to surrender the keys to the men who used the same to open the van’s sliding door and compelled Mila to step down from the van,
“Get down!” the armed men instructed.
Ela offered resistance and clung to Mila to protect her but one of the armed men hit the nanny with his gun on the right side of her torso, pulled her feet, and forced her out of the van until she fell on her back to the ground. One of the armed men, later identified as Anton, entered the van, snatched Mila out and brought her to the SUV which the four men boarded. They then zoomed toward the direction of a boulevard.
Herman, Aris and Ela chased the SUV, calling for help and shouting about the kidnapping. Then they reached a gasoline station along the boulevard, and saw the SUV at a nearby restaurant. They flagged down a policeman riding a motorcycle and told him what had happened. The latter pursued the vehicle but returned when he failed to catch up with the SUV. As they went back to the place of the incident, they saw two policemen in a mobile patrol car and reported the incident, proceeding thereafter to the police headquarters.
From the police headquarters, they went to the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) Office where Herman identified Jose and his co-accused Dino from the photographs he was shown with. Herman, Ela and Aris came up with their respective affidavits.
Later in the
day, Mila’s father received a call from a man identifying himself
as the commander.
The caller informed the doctor that his group had Mila in their
custody and warned him not to report the incident to anyone. He then
went off the line. Every half hour, the commander called up. He
initially demanded P100
million in ransom, but this was reduced to P35
million in subsequent conversations. The doctor, however, insisted
that he could raise P3
million only. The commander was angered by the bargain sought for by
the doctor; thus, he berated the latter.
Mila’s
parents agreed to collectively raise P5
million as ransom money. The
commander insisted on a higher amount and threatened to kill Mila and
dump her body into a creek. When the doctor was already at the bank,
the commander allowed him to listen to Mila’s voice over the phone
and told him that if they would not deliver the amount demanded,
their group would rape and kill his daughter.
Four days
later, the doctor and the commander finally agreed and fixed the
ransom amount at P8
million. After personally counting the bills and, following the
commander’s instructions, Mila’s father arranged the money in a
backpack.
The following day, the commander called the doctor and told him to prepare for the delivery of the ransom money. The doctor’s wife was tasked to make the delivery. He also relayed his instructions to the couple through the cellular phones.
At 8:00 o’clock in the morning of that day, the commander called the doctor’s wife on her cellphone instructing her to proceed home and wait for further instructions. In a span of twenty minutes, he made another call and instructed her to go to a restaurant. A few minutes after her arrival there, she was ordered to proceed to a gasoline station along the expressway, where she and her husband waited for an hour. An instruction was again relayed to her through the cellphone whereby she has to take a circuitous route until she would reach a billboard area where she would give the ransom money to a man who would come to her and mention the word “eagle.”
The couple followed the instructions and waited in the car until a man in a white shirt and jeans approached the side of the vehicle and told the doctor’s wife of his mission, mentioning the word “eagle.” She then handed over the blue bag containing the ransom money to the man, who took it and her cellphone, and told them to get lost.
Despite the
payoff, the kidnappers still failed to release Mila. Two days later,
the commander called up the doctor and told him that Mila was not
released because the payment was inadequate. The
doctor responded that his family could not give any more than what
had already been given. The
commander told him that he would call again. Sickened with fear and
worry for his daughter, the doctor had to be hospitalized. The
kidnappers again demanded for payment
of an additional ransom of P35
million.