EDITORIAL - Crime wave

The Philippines has been described as a black hole for financial crimes. This was after hackers believed to belong to a North Korean group called Lazarus stole $81 million in 2016 from the Bangladesh central bank’s account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and washed the money through a Philippine bank and a casino. Bangladesh has yet to fully recover the stolen funds.

If the Philippines doesn’t take decisive action, the country may also soon be regarded as an Asian center of more heinous criminal activities such as ransom kidnapping, torture and murder. While the cases involve mainly Chinese suspects targeting fellow Chinese and other foreigners, the stories are still horrific enough to scare away from the country those who are considering visiting for leisure or business.

A report over the weekend said that in Pampanga alone, at least nine foreigners have been murdered and their bodies dumped in different areas. Six of the nine are Chinese citizens, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission; the others are Japanese, Malaysian and Vietnamese. PAOCC officials said three of the nine, who were kidnapped in Pasay City, were found in the town of Porac, where the agency recently raided the Philippine offshore gaming operator hub Lucky South 99. The raid also yielded videos of POGO workers being tortured, one of them while naked and cowering under a bed.

The Chinese embassy has sought Philippine government intervention in the rising number of Chinese nationals being murdered. Recently, a Chinese and a Chinese-American working for two different Chinese medical equipment companies, who went to the Philippines on business trips, were killed after being kidnapped for ransom, despite payment of three million yuan (about $413,000) by the family of one of the victims.

Last month, four policemen were arrested for kidnapping three Chinese citizens. At least the victims were not killed. In October last year, six Chinese and three Filipinos were kidnapped from a house in Ayala Alabang Village. The Filipinos were freed in Laguna. Four of the Chinese were found dead in Rizal and Quezon. Two others – a woman and her 11-year-old son – remain missing.

Chinese citizens aren’t the only ones targeted. Over in nearby Capas, Tarlac, police over the weekend found the bodies of beauty pageant candidate Geneva Lopez and her Israeli fiancé Yitshak Cohen. Both bore gunshot wounds.

Regardless of the citizenship, everyone in this country deserves protection. Stronger measures are needed to stop this crime wave.