Police colonel denies hand in businesswoman's kidnap-slay

MANILA, Philippines - The police colonel tagged as the mastermind in the alleged kidnapping and killing of Lea Angeles Ng, a Filipino- Chinese businesswoman whose body was found in a septic tank in Laguna last Feb. 23, denied the charges against him.

Superintendent Rommel Miranda, former spokesman of the National Capital Region Police Office and now deputy chief of the Communication and Electronics Service of Philippine National Police Region 7 based in Cebu City, submitted his counter-affidavit at the Department of Justice yesterday.

Miranda said he does not have “any motive to harm, much less kill, Lea Ng who has been a good friend after having assisted and protected her interests and those of her family from the day I met her in 1997 and during her lifetime.”

“I vigorously and firmly deny being indebted to Lea Ng or her family on account of supposed collections I have made for her as alleged by her husband, Tommy Ng and his witnesses,” he added.

Miranda lamented what he said was “false imputation of a sinister motive to implicate me in her death, worse as the alleged mastermind-conspirator in her alleged kidnapping for ransom with homicide, a homicide crime.” He also cited his outstanding record as a police officer.

Police Officer 1 Reginel Santiago, who admitted his participation in the kidnap-slay, had accused Miranda of masterminding the crime.