US Embassy: No women missing

A police report about two American women kidnapped in Manila on Saturday was "basically not true," the US Embassy said yesterday.

Karen Kelley, US Embassy press attaché, told The STAR they were informed of the reported abduction of Catherine Smith and Christine Scott over the weekend and tried to verify it. "But no details proved to be accurate," she said.

Kelley said the embassy would not issue a statement on the incident because there was nothing that Americans should be concerned or alarmed about.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) anti-kidnapping unit is readying charges against the Filipino woman who falsely reported that two American women and her balikbayan-sister Diwa de la Cruz were kidnapped by burly looking men.

Senior Superintendent Allan Purisima, head of the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER), told The STAR they were studying what charges to file against the woman, who identified herself as "Lhea de la Cruz."

He said a thorough investigation revealed that no American tourists arrived in the Philippines and were kidnapped as they walked along Concepcion street near the Manila City Hall at about 7 p.m. last Saturday.

The woman later confessed that her name is "Dona Pascua." Pascua is in PACER custody and is expected to be subjected to psychiatric tests.

Reports showed that De la Cruz called the General Assignment Section of the WPD to report the kidnapping of the two Americans and the Filipina balikbayan.

Pascua even claimed that the three were billeted at the Heritage Hotel Manila, which the hotel management denied yesterday.

"Contrary to what was reported, we have no guests bearing the names Diwa de la Cruz, Catherine Smith and Christine Scott," Regina Kabigting, the hotel marketing communications manager, said.

Pascua alleged that she received a telephone call from an unidentified man who had demanded P3 million in exchange for the release of the three.

The Bureau of Immigration and airline offices reported there were no such Americans who came to the Philippines recently.

The National Capital Region Police Office said the telephone number allegedly used by the man who demanded the ransom was existing but has since been disconnected.

However, WPD chief Senior Superintendent Pedro Bulaong said there was indeed a complainant that two American tourists and one Filipina were allegedly kidnapped, but admitted that the story was just an "invented" one after police investigated it.

"There was no kidnapping. There was only this woman who reported such an incident. But verification with the (US) Embassy revealed that there were no such (kidnapped) persons. However, we still forwarded the report to PACER as we thought there was really a story to it," he said.

Bulaong said PACER was currently investigating the woman and her motive for reporting such false matter.

Chief Superintendent Robert Delfin, PNP director for intelligence, said Pascua promised to help in the investigation in order "to pin down a certain captain who reportedly hired her to file a bogus report." Pascua broke down during the PACER investigation.

Delfin said the PNP has established the woman "fabricated" her story and that they were trying to evaluate her credibility after she had implicated a certain Capt. Rolando Asuncion as the person who allegedly hired her. — With reports from Mike Frialde, Christina Mendez