Thanks and admiration

My cousin lent me a copy of the book “2X: Life After Kidnapping” by Ka Kuen Chua which I very much wanted to read after reading the “Singkit” column last Saturday (March 9, page 7).

I salute Mr. Chua – first, for his unflinching courage and determination to survive that terrible, inhuman ordeal at the hands of his kidnappers (that the mastermind, the so-called “General,” was not identified and not caught is very bad).

Second, that he had the courage and determination to make public his ordeal by coming out with the book is equally admirable. Many, if not most, victims probably just want to forget about their kidnapping and not talk about it, especially so publicly. But by sharing his experience, Mr. Chua puts the focus on this heinous crime called kidnapping for ransom, and I hope authorities will read the book, open their eyes and deal with this scourge seriously.

I cannot imagine what went through his mind when he was again kidnapped, almost four years after his ordeal. But thank God he was very quickly released, unharmed – salamat nalang natakot yung mga kidnappers, for whatever reason – at may kasama pang “Sorry, sorry.”

I also salute Mr. Chua for the work he has been and is doing against kidnapping in particular and crime in general, and his pursuit of reform in our very slow, corrupt and “unjust” justice system. As he said at the end of his book, “At that exact moment, through tears, I knew that this is what my life in this world is for.”

To Mr. Chua, and to the other kidnap victims who have stood up against their kidnappers, to all those in the MRPO who continue the arduous and often thankless work against crime and corruption and injustice, my sincerest thanks and admiration. – Annie Tan-Corpus, Novaliches, Quezon City