Because they are seen as being richer than other Filipinos, Chinese Filipino are often the targets of crime such as kidnapping. Seth Mydans wrote in the New York Times, “The highly visible role of the Chinese in Philippine economic growth — the Chinese-owned shopping malls and high-rises that are transforming Manila — have made them obvious targets for extortion. Members of the Chinese business community agree that investment has been affected but say it is impossible to estimate the amounts involved.” [Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, March 17, 1996 ]

On one incident, Mydans wrote: “The kidnapper’s speech impediment gave him away. As he negotiated with Jepson Dichaves over the amount of ransom for the businessman’s two small sons, he kept stumbling over the word for cheapskate. “He tried to disguise his voice by making it lower,” Mr. Dichaves said, “but I recognized him. He has a short tongue, and there was one word he could not pronounce: kakuriputan. It means cheapskate. He kept telling me I was a cheapskate and did not love my sons.” In the end, Mr. Dichaves, a wealthy Filipino-Chinese importer of fan belts and other rubber goods, talked the ransom down to 1.5 million pesos — about $60,000 — and the kidnapper, whom he recognized from his Tagalog-language pronunciation as a business associate named Ernesto Uyboco, freed his sons, aged 2 and 5. [Source: Seth Mydans, New York Times, March 17, 1996]

“In the last three years, 665 people have been kidnapped in the Philippines, most of them ethnic Chinese, said Teresita Ang See, who heads a citizens’ group that monitors the issue. Of these, 31 have been killed. Victims have acknowledged paying more than $11 million in ransom in this period, though Mrs. Ang See said the true figure was probably much higher. Thw highly visible role of the Chinese in Philippine economic growth — the Chinese-owned shopping malls and high-rises that are transforming Manila — have made them obvious targets for extortion. Members of the Chinese business community agree that investment has been affected but say it is impossible to estimate the amounts involved.

“I am told that some members of the Chinese community keep 5 or 10 million pesos at home,” said Solita Monsod, a leading economist, “and hope that when it’s their turn they will be kidnapped by the professionals, because then they know they will not get hurt. They just budget for it.” It is the parents of young children who worry the most. Hundreds of Filipino-Chinese families have sent their children abroad to school, Mrs. Ang See said. Those who have not mostly keep them at home, a number of parents say, forbidding visits to malls, video parlors and movies. One Chinese high school recently canceled its prom.

With danger seeming to lurk around every corner, many ethnic Chinese here have learned to live defensively, varying their routines, avoiding strangers, screening employees and eliminating much of their night life. In Binondo, Manila’s Chinese quarter, shops close at 5 or 6 P.M. now and business at restaurants is down. “Me, I try to avoid Manila,” said Benson Dakay, a Filipino-Chinese entrepreneur on the central island of Cebu, which is comparatively isolated from the kidnapping wave. And when he does visit, he said, he varies his schedule and where he stays. “Now I have to apologize to my kids for being very paranoid,” Mrs. Ang See said. “My younger child — he is 10 years old — feels very bad that he has to stick to me all the time in the mall. I tell him, ‘Sorry, but I don’t have the money to ransom you.’ “