As reported: RP is Asia's kidnapping hotspot

Weak rule of law, rampant corruption and ineffective law enforcement continue to make the Philippines Asia's kidnapping hotspot, a report by a leading risk consultancy group said Thursday.

The government had failed to address "these factors with any consistency or political will" and as a result kidnapping was likely to flourish in this Southeast Asian nation of 84 million people, said the report by Pacific Strategies and Assessments (PSA).

A total of 44 kidnappings were reported to police and government agencies last year, a 50 percent increase over 2004, but the vast majority still go unreported, the Asian-based consultancy group said in its annual report on kidnapping in the Philippines.

The number of actual kidnappings in the Philippines in 2005 was estimated to be three times the official figure and security analysts estimated that cases occur about every three days somewhere in the country, PSA said.

Chinese-Filipinos, who represent only three percent of the total population, are still the most prominent ethnic group to be kidnapped, accounting for 35 percent of all kidnappings in the past three years, the report said.

Foreign nationals accounted for 11 percent with the remainder being ethnic Filipinos.

"As a close-knit society, Chinese-Filipinos generally make attractive targets because they rarely involve police officials in the negotiation phase and they tend to pay ransom demands quickly," the report said.

"Chinese-Filipino communities also control approximately 60-70 percent of wealth in the country and are largely perceived as wealthier than their Filipino counterparts."

It said the Philippine National Police (PNP) "is both part of the problem and solution" when it comes to kidnapping.

"Many kidnap victims refuse to cooperate with the PNP due to lingering suspicion that the organization protects kidnap-for-ransom syndicates and feeds intelligence back to kidnap gangs during the negotiating process.

"These suspicions are not unfounded and there are endless incidents of police collusion with kidnap syndicates operating in Manila," the report said.

The report said the PNP's anti-crime emergency response (PACER) division had been active in infiltrating the kidnap syndicates but added: "With the Philippine economy struggling and the potential for relatively large ransoms, it is fairly easy for syndicates to recruit new members."

"The capacity for these syndicates to multiply far exceeds PACER's ability to infiltrate and disband them," the report said.

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