Chinese woman pleads for missing son

A 74-year-old Chinese mother sought the help of the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday to help find her only son who was reportedly abducted by still unidentified men in Manila on April last year.

The woman, Oh Hiok, flew in from Fujian, China to appeal to the Philippine government to help locate her 32-year-old son, Shi Ye Man alias Herman Sy, who was abducted in Manila on April 18, 10 days after another Chinese trader was snatched in the Chinatown District in Binondo.

Hiok came out a day after the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippines National Police and the National Bureau of the Philippines formed an anti-crime task force to look at the alarming incidents of kidnap-for-ransom cases involving Chinese traders.

Hiok, speaking in Fukienese, said she received a distress telephone call from her son sometime last month, informing her that he was in safehouse guarded by armed men and that he needed the ransom money badly.

Hiok, accompanied by her daughter, arrived in the country two months ago purportedly to look for his son. In tears, Hiok also appealed to the Chinese community for information that would lead to the release of her son.

According to Hiok, Sy has been in the Philippines for the past five to six years and was engaged in the ready-to-wear garments business in Divisoria, Manila.