An abducted Greek shipping executive has been killed by his captors while two Filipino kidnap victims were safely rescued by government agents in a separate incident, Philippine police said Saturday.
The body of Felipo Orfanos, 62, was found ditched in a canal in the village of Maybakal in Morong town, a suburban area east of Manila, Hermogenes Ebdane, chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, said.
The victim's body bore several bullet wounds and forensics experts believe Orfanos had been dead for three days before his body was discovered on Friday.
Ebdane said task force agents have arrested a man in connection with the murder and said Orfanos might have been killed after his family failed to raise a ransom demand of five million pesos (106,382 dollars).
Orfanos was snatched by unidentified suspects while on his way to work at the OBSM Shipping Office in Manila on January 15, press reports said.
Meanwhile, task force agents on Friday also rescued two businesswomen snatched by a kidnap-for-ransom syndicate last month in the eastern Philippine city of Naga and later taken to Saraiya in Quezon province just south of Manila.
Fe Cosay Chua and Susan Cadano were kidnapped along with a third victim Salvacion Cosay Tan, who was freed last week after raising a 4.86 million peso ransom.
"Tan's subsequent information pointed to the whereabouts of her colleagues which resulted in the successful raid," Ebdane said in a statement.
The abductions came on the same month national police chief Leandro Mendoza ordered intelligence operatives to step up work following reports that notorious kidnap-for-ransom gangs operating in rural areas were monitored to be moving to Manila.
But Interior Secretary Jose Lina said the rescue of the victims was a "breakthrough" in the government's efforts against kidnapping groups.
"This solution to kidnapping shows not only the daring pursuit of our law enforcers but also displays government's resolve to eliminate kidnapping syndicates," Lina said -- MANILA (AFP)
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