I’M referring to Architect Ka Kuen Chua, who literally “immortalized” a group of policemen led by two good friends, retired General Dindo Espina and Major Gen. Ronald Lee, who risked their lives in order to save him from his kidnappers who seized him on September 10, 2008 and treated him like an animal during his 18-days in captivity.

Yes, my friend, the low-key and humble Architect Ka Kuen Chua is the brave kidnapping-for-ransom victim-turned-chairman of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order founded by the indefatigable Tessie Ang-See. I just finished reading Ka Kuen’s book, Life After Kidnapping (2X) and I would say it was a very well-written. Ka Kuen chaired the MRPO from 2012 to 2023.

Ka Kuen, like me is a member of the advisory group of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group for many years. I’ve known him as the real first KFR victim in the country who decided that enough is enough and did the best thing: show his face in public and convince others to fight the kidnapping menace.

“Given a second chance at life, released from kidnappers after 18 days of horrendous and tortuous detention, he has found new meaning in his life and started helping other kidnap victims. Who else can best give advice, comfort and reassurance than someone who himself has known the pains and horrors of being held hostage,” the book’s foreword says.

For the uninformed, Ka Kuen was “kidnapped twice.” He said that “the first time was violent and long: when it was over, I was injured and wounded and exhausted.” The second time was on April 21, 2012 when he was held by armed kidnappers for 26 hours before being released unharmed.

Ka Kuen was first seized by kidnappers who posed as “policemen” and waited for him outside his house in Quezon City. He was pistol-whipped by one of the gunmen. One of the kidnappers’ guns accidentally went off and grazed his forehead. The kidnappers later beat him with their pistols before hand-cuffing and dragging him into their getaway car.

During his captivity, the kidnappers made sure he remained blindfolded and covered with a bonnet. They also inserted a piece of cloth to cover his eyes before wrapping it with rounds of packing tape which literally irritates the eye. They also wrapped his mouth with packing tape to prevent him from screaming.

Worst, huge chains were placed around his neck down to his handcuffed wrists in order to bind them together. It was the kidnappers’ brutality at its worst. While negotiating for a P70 million ransom which the Chua family simply could not afford, the kidnappers fed him with simple meal before wrapping his mouth again with packing tape.

His sisters and brothers decided not to tell their sick mother he has been kidnapped and with the help of a family friend and Ms. Ang-See contacted then Colonel Leonardo ‘Dindo’ Espina, the head of the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response during those days. (Col. Espina is a good family friend who would become an Officer-in-Charge of the PNP in 2015. He retired with the rank of Police Lieutenant General).

In his book, Ka Kuen said that one of his kidnappers who was being referred to by his cohorts as “General” agreed to lower their ransom demand to P50 million and later ordered his sisters to deposit an initial P200,000 to a Q.C. bank. The Chua family eventually managed to raise a total of P1,087,800 from “pooled and borrowed funds” just to pay the kidnappers.

Constantly threatened to be killed during his captivity, Ka Kuen recalled that it was on September 23, 2008 that a PACER investigator named Senior Police Officer Cesar Baysic received a phone call on the unit’s hotline. The “concerned citizen” said strangers in their neighborhood were roaming around their barangay in Novaliches, Quezon City and that local residents suspect they were up to no good.

Baysic reported the information to his superior, then Police Superintendent Ronald Lee, then the PACER’s intelligence division and case monitoring division chief who immediately sent a team to verify the information. The PACER surveillance team was composed of then Senior Inspector Renante Galang and Police Officers 2 Benedicto Cuyco and Ian Lord Pamaran.

The team later recounted seeing four to six armed men going in and out of the bungalow at No. 45 Belen Street with handguns tucked under their shirts, unaware that undercover officers were already watching them from a distance.

The PACER studied the findings of the surveillance team and later planned the rescue operation. On orders of Col. Espina, the team of Supt. Lee and then Senior Inspectors Leo Canuel, Arturo Fullero, PO2s Rodelio Decierdo and Regi Narag and PO1 Joselito Peralta, joined by the team of Galang stormed the kidnappers’ safehouse.

It was like a scene straight from an action movie. Shots were fired, the kidnappers were neutralized and Ka Kuen being rescued. “We are policemen. Are you Ka Kuen Chua,” the architect recalled his rescuers telling him after seeing him in his dog-like condition. Officers used a bolt-cutter to free the victim from his chains and they waited for a while before Ka Kuan was able to adjust to the light before taking off the bonnet and the packing tape around his lps and eyes.

I was among the journalists present when then PNP chief Gen. Jess Verzosa presented Ka Kuen to the press hours after his rescue. Sixteen years later, Gen. Espina is now living a simple life with his family, Superintendent Lee is now a Police Major General and PNP Director for Operations . Many of Ka Kuen’s rescuers have also been promoted too.

Maj. Gen. Lee is marking his 55th birthday today. Best wishes my friend.