Taiwanese businessman kidnapped

MANILA, Philippines - A Taiwanese businessman was kidnapped by at least four unidentified men from his factory in Valenzuela City Wednesday afternoon.

Ying Ching Chang, 29, owner of a clothes factory in Barangay Maysan, was still in the custody of his captors yesterday while his family negotiated for his release.

“The kidnappers have already contacted the family of the victim and demanded a ransom for his freedom,” a source, requesting anonymity, told The STAR yesterday.

The source said he is not privy to how much money the kidnappers demanded because it is the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) unit in Camp Crame that is now handling the case.

Four men knocked at the gate of the victim’s factory at around 2:16 p.m. and forced their way inside when a worker opened the gate.

The men proceeded to Chang’s office, where some of them disconnected the factory’s surveillance camera while others dragged the trader outside at gunpoint to a waiting getaway vehicle, a green Mitsubishi Adventure.

Before escaping, the other gunmen took out the hard drive of the victim’s computer, two laptops and a steel safety vault.

They also hogtied two factory workers and the victim’s father.

Senior Police Officer 3 Jesus Sagisi said there was no security guard at the victim’s factory when the kidnapping occurred. He said that the factory’s lone security guard only reports for duty from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.