Hancock widow survives kidnap try

Kidnappers tried to abduct last Tuesday Rosemarie Lacson Hancock Porteus, heiress to the wealth of the late Langley Hancock, one of the richest persons in Australia, in Ayala, Alabang; it was learned only yesterday.

Rosemarie, 53, a Filipina from Bacolod, who later married an equally rich Australian, William Walter Porteus, 56, foiled the attempt by resisting her abductors and screaming, attracting a crowd which unnerved the kidnappers.

The big number of people who converged at the scene, where four armed men were trying to bodily transfer Rosemarie to another vehicle from her chauffer-driven limousine, forced the men to release their victim and flee; but not after she had suffered a broken right wrist and bruises on her neck and body.

Rosemarie, who had just arrived in Manila last Saturday for a short vacation, had just left the Mandarin Hotel in Makati for her house in Alabang when four armed men riding in a car cut across her limousine on the Alabang viaduct of the South Superhighway, forcing the limousine to stop.

Four armed men came down from the car, forced open her door and tried to bodily transfer her to their vehicle. Her screams attracted a lot of people which prevented her kidnapping.

Rosemarie, who was accompanied by a doctor, cut short her vacation in Manila and left Wednesday afternoon for Australia via Singapore on board Singapore Airlines. She was quoted saying, "It is no longer safe to stay in Manila."

The police kept the kidnapping attempt under wraps.

Last Monday, a woman called The STAR to inquire where Rosemarie was going to give a press conference. She gave her name as a certain Ms. Palanca.

Meanwhile, Manila police are now looking for three students who were allegedly "kidnapped" in Ermita, Manila by four men who introduced themselves as policemen the other day.

According to police reports, the victims identified as Willie Eclipse, Val Candelaria and Marlon Escobar with their friend Catherine Peña, were eating lunch at a restaurant along Zobel St. in Ermita at about 1 p.m. when they allegedly discovered a dead rat in the food they were served.

The victims then trooped to the office of Barangay Chairman Heidi Solidum along Silvia St. in Ermita to file their complaint against the restaurant owner whom police identified as a certain Shiela Sy.

Police said the victims later met Sy at Solidum’s office and were about to arrive at an amicable settlement of P15,000 each when the suspects led by a certain "Colonel Lorenzo" arrived abroad a black van.

The suspects then introduced themselves as policemen and told Eclipse, Candelaria and Escobar to go with them to Camp Crame for an alleged investigation.

However, the three victims were not brought to Camp Crame when Peña later looked for them prompting her to seek police assistance. – Mike Frialde