PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 10, 2012) – Government troops and policemen captured three people after rescuing a four-year old son of a trader in Zamboanga del Sur province in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.
Officials said the boy was rescued after troops apprehended the trio at a military checkpoint in Aurora town over the weekend. “The boy is safe and reunited with his parents,” Capt. Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said authorities were investigating the motive of the abduction, but other reports suggested that the men seized the boy to force his father to pay them the investments they put into a money trading business that turned out to be a scam.
“We still don’t know the motive here, but there is a report that it could be connected to the investment scam,” Caber said, referring to the Aman Futures that duped hundreds of people in southern Philippines.
The head of the Aman Futures, Malaysian national Emmanuel Amalilio, has fled to Sabah several months ago after his company went bankrupt. Authorities said the company took as much as P12 billion from its investors.
Several Filipinos, including the mayor of Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur, Samuel Co, have been charged in court after being implicated in the scam. Co denied any links to the scam and insisted he was a victim too. (Mindanao Examiner)
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