DILG tags Pogo ‘syndicate’ in Chinese teen’s kidnapping

MANILA, Philippines — A 14-year-old Chinese national who was abducted last week was found abandoned in Parañaque City on Tuesday night, with one of his fingers severed, authorities said.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said investigators initially suspected the crime to be the work of a group connected to the now-banned industry known as Pogos, or Philippine offshore gaming operators.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Remulla said the victim, a student of the British School Manila, was taken by his captors after his classes were dismissed on Thursday afternoon last week.

READ: PNP records 8 kidnapping cases in 2025; all involving foreigners

The victim’s family vehicle was later found abandoned on the southbound lane of C-5 Road. The family driver was found dead the next day in another vehicle abandoned in San Rafael, Bulacan.

READ: PNP: Father of abducted Chinese teen has Pogo connections

From that second vehicle, authorities recovered “pieces of evidence” and “information” about the abductors, Remulla said.

No ransom was paid for the victim’s release, although the captors initially demanded $20 million and later renegotiated to make it $1 million, which the family still rejected, he said.

“We suspect that the victim’s family were former Pogo operators. We’re definite that the syndicate behind the kidnapping were also former Pogo operators,” Remulla said.

Just for money

Remulla was also “definite” that the perpetrators hired bodyguards who were former policemen and soldiers who had gone Awol (absent without leave). He declined to elaborate.

The motive for the kidnapping was “just money,” Remulla said. “There’s no revenge involved; they’re crime syndicates.”

“It’s foreigner against foreigner ... There’s no Filipino mastermind behind this. Based on the matrix that we found, this is a result of the Pogo operations that started in 2016. They found a lucrative means of livelihood,” he said.

“This does not end with the retrieval and the rescue of the victim. The operations will continue; we will make sure that we won’t stop until we’ve come after those responsible for this,” he said.

Pinkie cut off

On Saturday, the suspects released a video showing the victim as his right pinkie finger was being cut off.

The following day, they sent his family another video of the victim singing his younger sibling’s favorite song as proof of life.

On Monday, the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) of the Philippine National Police tracked a signal transmitted from the abductors’ phone. The next day, another signal was traced to the suspects, this time coming from a phone in a moving vehicle.

“Where they called and where they kept the child were two separate places. They had many phone numbers to trace,” Remulla said.

As the authorities were chasing the signal detected in Parañaque City on Tuesday night, they spotted a teenager in pajamas in the middle of Macapagal Avenue, his right hand bandaged.

“The choice was pursuing the (suspects’) vehicle or securing the child. Obviously, the AKG prioritized the child. They picked him up and brought him to his father. He was identified (as the kidnapping victim) and it was confirmed that his finger was cut off,” Remulla said.

The victim was brought to the hospital and later underwent a debriefing, he added.

(2025/02/27-05:30)