MANILA, Philippines: Four police officers assigned in the Philippine capital region have been arrested for kidnapping for ransom that victimized four foreign tourists, officials said Wednesday.
Two of the officers onboard motorcycles flagged down a luxury car carrying three Chinese and a Malaysian over the weekend, while their armed civilian cohorts handcuffed and dragged the four tourists into a van. Two of the Chinese managed to escape and notified authorities, police said.
The remaining captives were beaten by the kidnappers but freed overnight after payment of a 2.5-million-peso ($43,100) ransom, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said. Information provided by the freed tourists and images from security cameras led to the arrest of the four police, including a police major, he said.
“I was shocked that policemen were the ones involved,” Abalos said in a news conference, where the four police were presented in handcuffs and orange detainee shirts. “This incident is a serious breach of public trust and core values of the police force.”
Police said they’re looking for at least 10 other suspects who were not police but implicated in the kidnapping.
Police said they filed criminal complaints for kidnapping, carjacking and robbery against the suspects.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte had described many members of the national police, numbering more than 230,000 nationwide, as “rotten to the core,” although he ordered them to enforce his anti-drugs crackdown that led to the killings of thousands of mostly poor suspects.
The International Criminal Court has been investigating the large-scale killings as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte and the national police chiefs who served under him had denied authorizing extrajudicial killings athough the former president had publicly threatened drug suspects with death during his presidency, which ended in 2022.
Police officers in the Philippines arrested for kidnapping 4 tourists and demanding a ransom
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Police officers in the Philippines arrested for kidnapping 4 tourists and demanding a ransom
Cambodia shuts Thailand border crossings over deadly fighting
- Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Trump “didn’t mention whether we should make a ceasefire” during their Friday phone call
- Across the border, a Cambodian evacuee said she was “sad” the fighting hadn’t stopped despite Trump’s intervention
BANGKOK: Cambodia shut its border crossings with Thailand on Saturday, after Bangkok denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that a truce had been agreed to end days of deadly fighting.
Violence between the Southeast Asian neighbors, which stems from a long-running dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometer (500-mile) border, has displaced around half a million people on both sides.
At least 25 people have died this week, including four Thai soldiers the defense ministry said were killed in the border area on Saturday.
The latest fatalities were followed by Phnom Penh announcing it would immediately “suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings,” the interior ministry said.
Each side blamed the other for reigniting the conflict, before Trump said a truce had been agreed.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Trump “didn’t mention whether we should make a ceasefire” during their Friday phone call.
The two leaders “didn’t discuss” the issue, Anutin told journalists on Saturday.
Trump had hailed his “very good conversation” with Anutin and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Friday.
“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord” agreed in July, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The United States, China and Malaysia, as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN, brokered a ceasefire in July after an initial five-day spate of violence.
In October, Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed to prolong their truce.
But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month after Thai soldiers were wounded by land mines at the border.
In Thailand, evacuee Kanyapat Saopria said she doesn’t “trust Cambodia anymore.”
“The last round of peace efforts didn’t work out... I don’t know if this one will either,” the 39-year-old told AFP.
Across the border, a Cambodian evacuee said she was “sad” the fighting hadn’t stopped despite Trump’s intervention.
“I am not happy with brutal acts,” said Vy Rina, 43.
- Trading blame over civilians -
Bangkok and Phnom Penh have traded accusations of attacks against civilians, with the Thai army reporting six wounded on Saturday by Cambodian rockets.
Cambodia’s information minister, Neth Pheaktra, meanwhile said Thai forces had “expanded their attacks to include civilian infrastructure and Cambodian civilians.”
A Thai navy spokesman said the air force “successfully destroyed” two Cambodian bridges used to transport weapons to the conflict zone.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday urged both sides to “cease all forms of hostilities and refrain from any further military actions.”
Thailand has reported 14 soldiers killed and seven civilian deaths, while Cambodia said four civilians were killed earlier this week.
At a camp in Thailand’s Buriram, AFP journalists saw displaced residents calling relatives near the border who reported that fighting was ongoing.
Thailand’s prime minister has vowed to “continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people.”
After the call with Trump, Anutin said “the one who violated the agreement needs to fix (the situation).”
Cambodia’s Hun Manet, meanwhile, said his country “has always been adhering to peaceful means for dispute resolutions.”
