And while the Chinese Embassy has since distanced itself from the controversial case, President Arroyo has continually taken a personal interest in the matter.
This, after the President made special mention of the 30-year-old businesswoman’s case in her second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 22 in which she stressed that hunting down kidnappers forms an important part of her commitment to build a "Strong Republic."
Jacky, as she is called by her loved ones, was kidnapped on Sept. 27 last year in San Fernando, La Union. Her family, which runs a hardware store, paid P10 million for her freedom. She spent eight days in captivity.
The President has a big reason to be concerned about Jacky’s case because it stirred up a hornet’s nest of sorts in the Chinese-Filipino community. The reason: the kidnappers are not the usual suspects — members of local gangs often in cahoots with corrupt policemen — but Chinese from the mainland.
Two other suspects — Zhang Xi Wang, alias Michael Zhang, 20; and Zhang Du alias Wilson Zhang, 35 - were apprehended at their safehouse at No. 8 Tuesday st., St. Joseph Subdivision in Bacoor, Cavite. All of the suspects hail from the China province of Fujian.
News of Jacky’s kidnapping sent ripples of fear among Chinese-Filipinos in San Fernando. After all, it was the first kidnapping to occur in the quiet coastal city.
But more than that, members of the Chinese-Filipino community in the city and elsewhere realized that they now have to deal with the possibility that kidnappers from China are now operating in the country.
"I have given clear orders to spare nothing in hunting down kidnappers," she said.
The seven suspects were detained at the NAKTAF headquarters at Camp Crame, but an eighth suspect, Henry Ong, a businessman who supposedly owns the Mitsubishi Adventure used by the kidnappers, is still at large.
But prominent members of the Chinese-Filipino community were enraged that the embassy of the People’s Republic of China appeared to be coddling such "imported" criminals by meddling in criminal cases filed against them in local courts. The embassy had sent a note verbale to the Department of Justice requesting for the release of two of the seven suspects, Zhang Xiwang and Zhang Du.
"The Chinese government has always held that criminals should be punished and innocent people be protected according to law," the one-page note verbale read in part.
A police intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Philippine National Police (PNP), by arresting the suspects, may have nipped in the bud the beginnings of a kidnapping gang run by Chinese mainlanders in the country.
A few days after The STAR came out with a special report on the case, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) chided the Chinese Embassy for pressuring a government prosecutor into downgrading the charges against two suspects from being principals to mere accessories.
The DFA said it was "inappropriate" for Chinese Embassy officials to say that the two were innocent of the charges. On the strength of the diplomatic note, San Fernando City assistant prosecutor Oscar Corpuz Sr. was said to have downgraded the charges against Zhang Du and Henry Ong from principal to accessory, which allowed each of them to post P100,000 bail. In a four-page resolution on Nov. 19, 2001, he indicted the suspects for kidnapping allegedly without the required preliminary investigation. The resolution was endorsed by his immediate superior, city prosecutor Gloria Catbagan.
Zhang Du subsequently jumped bail. He, however, was arrested only recently by the Bureau of Immigration for overstaying. He joined the six other accused at the provincial jail in Bambang, La Union.
Jacky’s courage to speak out against the perpetrators of her abduction has earned her the praise of the police, who often have to deal with uncooperative kidnap victims who are afraid to come out for fear that their kidnappers would get back at them.
Jacky finished her testimony last Oct. 4, the date a year ago when she was freed by her captors. She took the witness stand four times, spending at least three hours testifying in each occasion. Her father Rodolfo, 58, was set to testify last Dec. 6 but the hearing was rescheduled for next month.
"I went to court armed only with the truth," she told The STAR in an e-mail interview. "I knew the Lord was with me and I had nothing to fear." She said her faith in the country’s justice system has been restored by the attention the government has showered her case. She is also all praises for the police.
"Justice is finally being served," she said in a mobile phone interview a week ago after learning that the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission had recommended the dismissal from the service, for bungling the kidnapping case, of San Fernando assistant city prosecutor Oscar Corpuz Sr. who downgraded the charges against two of the suspects.
Sources in La Union’s community of lawyers and prosecutors also welcomed the news but they said the PAGC should have also included in its investigation Corpuz’s immediate superior, city prosecutor Gloria Catbagan, who, in the first place, endorsed her subordinate’s findings. Jacky refused to comment on this.
Jacky has remained steadfast, despite continuing threats to her life. Two days before she took the witness stand, she and her father received threatening calls from unidentified persons. Since her release from her captors, she has not gone out of the house without packing an automatic pistol. Since her teens, she has been a target-shooting enthusiast although on the day she was kidnapped, she did not have her gun with her.
"A normal life for me is when I can finally feel safe again," she said. "That means being able to live a carefree life without getting my parents worried."