EDITORIAL - Get them, whoever they are

Another day, another kidnapping. Mary Cheng-Regasa was in a Mercedes Benz with a driver and bodyguard when they were waylaid by gunmen inside the campus of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City Monday morning. Reports said three of the gunmen wore police uniforms and were armed with M-16 rifles.

Now why would cops stage an abduction in broad daylight in a busy campus and provide leads to their identity by wearing their uniform? The kidnappers either aimed to mislead witnesses or wanted to discredit the Philippine National Police. Pro-bably both, as far as the administration is concerned. Meeting the press yesterday, President Arroyo said she smelled a destabilization plot in the kidnapping, adding that a "political entity" was being eyed in the abduction. Regasa, daughter of the owner of Uratex foams and mattresses, and her two companions were freed hours later allegedly after paying P50 million in ransom. Her father reportedly suffered a heart attack and is said to be in critical condition in a hospital.

Perhaps the administration is right about the destabilization plot. Sinister forces that used to handle kidnapping and robbery gangs may be active again, making money out of crime and at the same time embarrassing the administration. Unless the government can substantiate its suspicions, however, it will find itself accused of crying wolf and looking for alibis in its failure to curb criminality. Persons who feel alluded to will complain of a witch-hunt.

The only response to kidnappings, whether for real or stage-managed for destabilization, is to get the perpetrators. Find the crooks, arrest them, prosecute them, convict them. If the government is crying destabilization, it must let the truth be known through legitimate arrests and effective law enforcement. Destabilization or not, people don’t feel safe in the streets and even in their homes. People are getting kidnapped. Whether the brains are foreigners or Filipinos doesn’t matter. What matters is that whoever breaks the law is arrested. What matters is to send a strong message that in this country, crime does not pay.