Kidnapped wife of Japanese national rescued in Bulacan

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Police rescued last Tuesday the wife of a Japanese national who was kidnapped by four suspects and kept in a house in Pulilan, Bulacan.

Chief Superintendent Arturo Cacdac, Central Luzon police director, said the victim, Susana Ishihara, 41, was rescued unharmed, although she was blindfolded, her mouth covered with masking tape and her hands tied with nylon rope when policemen found her.

The arrested suspects were identified as the alleged mastermind, Evangeline Santos Nissisawa, a Filipina also married to a Japanese, and her accomplices Jonathan Mateo, Ronald Fino and Perseus Cruz, who owned the house in Barangay Paltao, Pulilan town where the victim was found.

In a report to Cacdac, Senior Superintendent Fernando Villanueva of the Bulacan police said Ishihara, a resident of Japan, was vacationing in Bugo, Cebu City when her friend Queenie Gamboa introduced her to Nissisawa.

Villanueva said Nissisawa urged Ishihara to visit her place in Bulacan and that she would host her stay in the province.

Ishihara accepted the invitation and last July 11, she, Gamboa and Nissisawa arrived in Manila and stayed there overnight for their trip to Bulacan the following day.

The following day, Mateo arrived on a Honda Civic with license plate UMW 570 to pick them up from their hotel in Manila.

The police report said that after the car exited from the North Luzon Expressway in Pulilan, Bulacan, Mateo stopped and alighted from the car as a motorcycle with two men on board approached.

One of the men commandeered the car, while the other entered the back seat and poked his pistol at the women.

Police said the two men ordered Gamboa to alight from the car before they sped off, leaving behind Gamboa and Mateo.

Gamboa, who suspected Mateo’s involvement in the kidnapping, flagged down patrolling Pulilan policemen who, in turn, arrested Mateo.

Text messages found in Mateo’s cell phone yielded information on the location of the house where Ishihara was being held, police said.

The text messages also revealed that Nissisawa was the one who allegedly masterminded the kidnapping.

The suspects did not put up a fight when the police rescue team swooped down on their safehouse in Pulilan.

Found in the suspects’ possession were a replica of a 9-mm. Berreta pistol, P50,000 cash, a handwritten letter demanding P2-million ransom from Ishihara’s Japanese husband, Ishihara’s personal belongings and passport, and the car used in the kidnapping. – With Ric Sapnu