KFRs yes, kidnapping no

By Ronilo L. Pamonag

Bad news first or good news?

The good news is that there has been no kidnapping in Iloilo City since the Jefferson Tan kidnapping case in 2002 contrary to a report about an alleged incident involving the son of a businessman.

The bad news is there are kidnap for ransom groups in the City engaged in extortion.

“If we talk about KFR groups, well there are a lot of them here; they are based here. Some are from here but operating in Metro Manila, while some are both based and operating here,” said a junior ranking military intelligence agent.

“They have been here for quite some time now. When I was assigned here several years ago, they were already here,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

Although these KFR groups are eyeing well to do Ilonggos, they cannot carry out any kidnapping operation because their targets have bodyguards.

But these groups would rather avoid snatching their victims and hold them for ransom.

What they would do, the source explained, is to contact the families of their intended victims, and threaten them with kidnapping unless the latter would pay them P10,000 to P20,000 on the average.

“They're quite small time,” the source pointed out.

Although small time these groups may be, the officer admitted that these pose a problem to them.

“That's one thing we're worried about (that the intended victims would rather give in to the demand). And then they would just keep silent and not tell the authorities,” said the officer.