Kidnap try sparks uproar among residents, netizens

Supt. Dexter Calacar ordered his personnel to place a barrier at the door of the Minglanilla Police Station yesterday morning.

The town’s police chief prevented some angry residents from confronting six sales agents who allegedly attempted to abduct a 10-year- old Grade 4 pupil outside the Minglanilla Central School last Thursday afternoon.

“They want a piece of them,” said Calacar.

He explained to the residents that the agents of a book trading firm are still suspects of the crime.

The incident brought back the fate of Ellah Joy Pique, who was kidnapped while leaving her school in Barangay Calajoan, Minglanilla last February 2011.

Her body was found at the foot of a cliff in Barili, Cebu.

Justice still eludes the girl’s family six years after her death.

The court had dismissed the charges of kidnapping with homicide against Bella Ruby Santos last October 2014.

Death penalty

Anecito Cuizon, in an interview, said he remembered Ellah Joy’s death since he followed it on the news.

He also said he is the uncle of Karen Kaye Montebon, a 17-yearold college student who was killed in Lapu-Lapu City last September 2015.

Cuizon wants capital punishment back in the country.

“I am in favor of the reimposition of the death penalty. If criminals are killed, their human rights are being asserted. But if there are people being kidnapped, it’s all right? That cannot be,” Cuizon said.

The suspects, who arrived in the town on a white van yesterday, denied that they planned to abduct the 10-year-old girl and her three classmates.

James Kevie Paradela said he did not grab the girl with force.

He only gently touched her and asked her where to buy guavas outside the school.

“I was already hungry at the time,” he said in Cebuano.

Netizens, however, don’t believe his version of the incident. Most of them were mad at the suspects.

“Nganong mokupot man ka sa bata na dili man mo kaila? (Why would you touch a child you don’t know?)” said Christofer Jon Quinto in a Facebook post.

Miel Vick Faburado commented: “Palusot pa. (You are just making excuses).”

Josue Manlangit, another Facebook user, asked why the suspects would need a van when they only want to buy guavas.

The suspects were detained in the detention cell of the Minglanilla Police Station.