Poe camp cries kidnapping

A nephew of former press secretary Rod Reyes, the media bureau chief of opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., was reportedly abducted by three unidentified men in Makati City last Wednesday.

Initial police reports said Richard Rivera, 35, was also forced by his abductors to eat a Poe campaign poster and wash it down with a bottle of brake fluid.

Rivera was snatched by three men along C-5 Road in Makati City while about to board his car, the reports said.

Rivera said he was forced to drive by the three men all the way to Lipa City in Batangas, where he was ordered to withdraw P20,000 from his automated teller machine account.

He said that it was in Lucena City, Quezon where he was ordered to alight from his car.

Rivera said when the three men saw several posters of Poe inside the trunk of his car, he was forced to eat a large poster and drink from a container of brake fluid until he passed out.

After he regained consciousness, Rivera said his abductors allowed him to go home and gave him P100 for trasportation fare.

Rivera said he took a bus home to Muntinlupa City and immediately called his wife before seeking medical help at the Asian Hospital.

"I was vomiting, there was foam coming out of my mouth," he said.

Rivera said the doctors later diagnosed him "with severe burns in the throat and stomach." He said the doctors even advised him against eating any solid food and recommended his confinement at the Makati Medical Center until Sunday.

Rivera described two of his abductors as in their mid-20s and their supposed leader in his late 40s.

"They did not have any firearms but there were three of them. One was bigger in size than me," he said.

Rivera said he has yet to report the incident to the police, admitting that he is inclined not to trust the police in investigating his abduction.

Rivera’s father-in-law, Carmelo Santiago, owner of Melo’s restaurant, said they might not report the incident to the police.

"Pinag-iisipan ito nang malalim. Gusto lang namin i-report sa taong bayan. Wala kaming nakikitang mangyayari. Isa na rin ako sa marami na di naniniwala sa pulis (We are still considering whether to report the incident to the police. The way we see it, the case will go unnoticed and I am one of those people who do not trust the police)," he said.

Santiago said they are willing to show medical records to prove that the incident really took place.

"We want to establish his (Rivera’s) medical records, we don’t want people to say that we just manufactured it," he said.

Both Rivera and Santiago pointed an accusing finger at the camp of President Arroyo, calling the incident "political terrorism."

Opposition leaders immediately took the occasion to denounce the incident as another move to destabilize Poe’s political campaign.

In a statement, the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) denounced the incident as a "dastardly act perpetrated by unseen but powerful forces out to derail at all costs, the imminent landslide victory of FPJ (Poe) and the KNP ticket."

"We are shocked to learn that some quarters would resort to such atrocious tactics in a futile attempt to cow the opposition into fear and submission and threaten people supporting the KNP," the statement said. — Evelyn Macairan