Behind doctor’s abduction: Jealousy is motive

CEBU, Philippines - His closeness to a woman may have been the motive behind the abduction of a medical intern and scion of the owner of Cebu Doctors' University Hospital last Saturday.

Senior Superintendent Jonathan Cabal, chief of the Regional Intelligence Division of Police Regional Office-7, said that Julian Iñaki Larrazabal Garcia, 26, told them that his abductors were jealous of his closeness to a fellow medical intern at the CDUH.

Garcia told police investigators that his abductors rebuked him for always tagging along with the woman, whose name was not mentioned by the police.

Cabal said Garcia claimed that his abductors pointed a gun at him, bound his hands and hit his knees with a hard object allegedly to "teach him a lesson."

Police investigators believe that the motive was personal grudge considering that there was no demand for ransom and no personal belongings were taken from the victim before he was released few hours after his abduction.

The victim was released by his abductors in Carcar City at about 10 a.m. or two hours after he was forcibly taken into a van along F. Ramos Extension in Cebu City.

Even as police said jealousy appeared the motive, Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said they are still looking into other possible angles aside from jealousy. This includes the victim's medical work.

 Tumulak said the family of the victim asked to spare him from interviews for the meantime because he is still in fear considering what was done to him.

The victim was taken into a white van by four people wearing masks before 8 a.m. last Saturday. He was walking toward his vehicle at the parking area of CDUH where he is having his post-graduate internship, when he was abducted.

The incident was immediately reported by a concerned citizen to Police Station 2. A checkpoint was established but the police failed to intercept the abductors.

At around 10 a.m. Garcia was released in Barangay Poblacion I, Carcar City.

Joephel Dacillo, 22, said he saw a Toyota Hi-Ace van drop off the victim and speed off back to the direction where it came from. Dacillo said the victim was blindfolded, bound and had bruises when he found him.

Cebu City Police Office director Joel Doria dismissed the incident as kidnapping since no ransom was involved, however he still directed the Investigation and Detective Management Branch and the Anti-Kidnapping Group-7 to look deeper into the incident. (FREEMAN)