THE PARENTS of the Ateneo senior who was reported to have been kidnapped on November 21 are dismayed over the police statements saying that the incident was a mere “kidnap me” case.

In interviews with Rappler and Interaksyon, the student’s parents said that the kidnapping certainly took place.

“Let us state this in clear and in no uncertain terms: The kidnapping happened, and it was not a scheme that was cooked up by my daughter or any of her friends,” said the parents in a statement sent to Rappler on December 5.

According to the statement, the student was abducted from the Ateneo campus on November 21 between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM. She was said to be released between 2:20 AM and 3:00 AM of the next day.

In the same statement, the student said she was abducted by “at least four men” who covered her face with a bonnet and a sack, and who then pushed her into the back seat of her car.

Conflicting details

In an article published by Interaksyon, the student’s father described the details of the incident. He said that she had gone to school to pass a paper, “something that they figured should not take more than 20 minutes.”

The parents received calls from their daughter’s phone. Upon answering, however, they were only met with silence on the other end.

Later on, a man introducing himself as an Ateneo professor named “Dale” sent a message to the mother, saying that the student “needed money,” and that the parents needed to go to Xavier Hall, where her car was parked. However, students are not allowed to park in the said area.

“Dale” also said that the student “had been taken by ‘bad men.’”

“Dale” supposedly said he was teaching “Basic Writing.” However, the Ateneo does not have a professor by the name of “Dale” nor does it offer “Basic Writing” as a course.

Meanwhile, according to the article by Rappler, the mother said that she received an unusual call from her daughter asking her to bring money at Xavier Hall.

At around 10:00 PM, the father received a text from the student’s phone as well, asking for P250,000 to be delivered to a Jollibee branch in Cubao. He suspected, however, that the sender was not his daughter because of the phrasing of the text message.

The father also told Interaksyon that his brother-in-law asked for help from a friend in the military. The student’s cellphone was then traced and located to be somewhere in Concepcion, Marikina City.

The family then went to Camp Karingal to file the kidnapping case, while a cousin claimed to have spotted the student’s car and was tailing it.

The student’s father, along with the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNP AKG), then headed to Markina to conduct an entrapment operation. The cousin, however, said that the car was no longer in sight.

The PNP AKG team was about to regroup when the father received a call from his brother saying that the student had called her grandmother asking for help because of a car trouble in a gas station in Pasig.

According to her father, the student made up the car trouble story so as not to alarm her grandmother.

Rappler said the student was left alone near a gas station along Manggahan, Pasig City by the suspects after declaring the operation as “sablay (failure).”

In earlier reports, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Chief Superintendent Richard Albano told the media that no kidnapping took place and that they were looking at a staged abduction case.

“Ang pamilya [ng biktima] na mismo ang nagsabi na mukhang walang nangyaring kidnapping… Hindi rin natin niru-rule out ‘yung possibility ng ‘kidnap me’ (The family [of the victim] said themselves that it looked as if no kidnapping happened… We are also not ruling out the possibility of a ‘kidnap me’ [angle]),” he said.

However, the student’s father clarified through Rappler that “they never talked to Albano or anyone from the QCPD.”

The kidnap-for-ransom case is being handled by the PNP AKG but they refused to give an official statement to The GUIDON because their investigation is still on-going.

Editor’s Note: The GUIDON is in the process of getting more information from the victim, the PNP AKG and the Vice President for Administration.