Reds snatch Batangas surgeon

SAN JOSE, Batangas — Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas snatched a heart surgeon and his wife here yesterday afternoon, but later released the woman.

Chief Inspector Ruel Esparas, in a report to Superintendent Rolando Lorenzo, said Dr. Arturo Boa, 52, a heart surgeon and president of Busilac Feedmills, and his wife Aida, 50, had come from their poultry farm and were on their way home aboard a Mitsubishi Lancer when their path was blocked by a maroon car in Sitio Putol, Barangay Taysan this town.

At gunpoint, the suspected rebels commandeered the Boas’ Lancer, and upon reaching Barangay San Sebastian in Lipa City, they ordered the surgeon’s wife to disembark.

"Huwag kayong mag-alala, hihiramin lang namin si doktor para gamutin ang may mga sugat at may sakit naming kasamahan (Don’t worry, we are just borrowing Doc to treat our sick and wounded comrades)," the abductors were quoted as saying.

The Boas reportedly offered money to their abductors, thinking they were members of a kidnap-for-ransom group. But she quoted them as retorting: "Hindi namin kailangan ang pera ninyo. Si Doktor lang kailangan namin (We don’t need your money. Doc is the one we need)."

When she was dumped, Mrs. Boa made a phone call at a store. But the storekeeper overheard her and immediately informed the Lipa City police, seeing that she was trembling with fear.

Police later learned that the abductors had instructed Mrs. Boa to get her husband’s gun and bring it to a Shell gas station where someone would pick it up. No one, however, showed up at the gas station.

Later in the afternoon, this town’s police got a phone call from the Tayabas, Quezon police, informing them that the Boas’ Mitsubishi Lancer with license plate DLE-567 was found abandoned in their town but with no sign of the heart surgeon.