ANGELES CITY — Reports of groups abducting youths for their internal organs have again surfaced, this time more malignantly because of social media. Mug shots of the alleged culprits as well as their vehicle plate numbers have been shared, and videos of alleged abductions have shocked and caused panic, especially among parents.
But the Philippine National Police (PNP) has looked into such reports and found them wanting. No evidence of such abductions has so far been found, despite social media attestations.
Two of the more convincing videos now circulating in social media have been found to have been staged by a group of young pranksters, the police have said.
One video posted last Nov. 29 was from the CCTV camera showing a student on a sidewalk being whisked suddenly into a van by a man who had emerged from the vehicle which then drove off fast. This video earned almost a million views as of yesterday.
Another similar video, from a CCTV camera in Sta. Ana, Manila, also went viral on Facebook and its Messenger arm.
The Manila Police District said, however, that a comparison of the two videos showed the same student being abducted, as it cited one of the culprits as admitting the videos were staged as pranks in areas with CCTV cameras.
The police, however, did not provide more details on the culprits, except to say that one of them admitted the videos were pranks. No report on whether they were minors, where they were from, what punitive measures were undertaken to prevent them from such jokes that has again triggered panic among parents nationwide.
In Pampanga, reports of abductions of youths purportedly for their internal organs have continued to spread. One version identified the location as Barangays Camachile and Lakandula in Mabalacat City, but a check with the police in the city revealed they were mere rumors.
In other parts of the country, including Metro Manila, the police have also dismissed reports of such abductions as baseless despite reports that in Pasay City, nine people aged 18 to 23 allegedly went missing on November 20 and November 22.
The police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group (PNPAKG) said it has not found any conclusive evidence pointing to the alleged abductions of youths for their internal organs, as well as the existence of vans supposedly used to snatch victims.
The AKG has appealed to social media users to refrain from irresponsible postings and forwarding of messages which may cause the public to panic.
In February this year, however, the police urged parents to be extra vigilant following the arrest of a man who tried to kidnap five children in Quezon City.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac issued this appeal after suspect Norly Rafael, 53, was arrested in Barangay Commonwealth after an attempt to abduct four children. The suspect said he had sold children for P5,000 each, but the police did not provide further information on the fate of the children sold.
In 2013, reports of such abductions swept the country and also triggered panic among parents. But are abductions for internal organ harvests totally without basis?
Wikipedia
Wikipedia.org says that “the murder of human beings for their body parts is a crime in all countries. Such practices have been confirmed or suspected to occur within a handful of contexts.”
“Medicine murder (not to be confused with ‘medical murder’ due to medical negligence) means the killing of a human being in order to excise body parts to use as medicine or for magical purposes in witchcraft. Medicine murder is not viewed as a form of human sacrifice in a religious sense, because the motivation is not the death of a human or the effecting of magical changes through the death of a human being, but the obtaining of an item or items from their corpse to be used in traditional medicine,” says the website.
It has observed that “the illegal organ trade has at times led to murder for body parts, because of a worldwide demand of organs for transplant and organ donors. At times, criminal organizations have engaged in kidnapping people, especially children and teens, with the victims being killed and their organs harvested for the illegal organ trade. The extent is unknown, and non-fatal organ theft and removal is more widely reported than murder.”
Now here’s another information from Wikipedia that should interest Filipinos. Wikipedia has reported that “in 2006, China was reported to be using its extensive pool of Falun Gong political prisoners as a supply for body parts to be used in transplants. The allegations and supporting testimony were raised in several countries and seen as deeply disturbing.”
In its report, Orion Support Inc. has reported that “thousands of people go missing worldwide every year and the Philippines is no exception. It is estimated that around 35,000 persons are reported missing each year in the Philippines. This equates to one person disappearing every 15 minutes or a rate of 1.7 people per 1,000 Filipinos.”
