ANGELES CITY- South Korean embassy officials have been keeping track on the safety of their compatriots in this city and even met with the local police to help for their safety.
“Consuls from the embassy have been here and met with us on the incidents victimizing South Koreans,” said city police director Senior Supt. Eden Ugale said. Ugale noted the possibility of business rivalry among the Koreans as motive for some of the murder cases, amid reports of their links to gun-for-hire groups run by Filipinos.
Earlier, Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan already warned he would not tolerate the existence of any “mafia” type operations of foreign nationals in this city. There have been reports of such a group established by South Koreans to control the business interest of their newly arrived compatriots in this city.
Ugale said he has been coordinating with organized Korean groups in this city to help maintain peace and order in the communities were the foreigners spend recreation and live, mostly along Friendship Avenue where they have also established a “Korea town.”
The Korean Community Association of Central Luzon, which is based here, has already expressed concern over crimes victimizing South Koreans in this city. Last January, Hyeog- Jae Kwak, 51, a resident of Carmenville subdivision here, was shot dead in the Balibago business district by motorcycle riding men who took off with $20,000 he had just withdrawn.
In February, Her Tae Suk, 65, was walking towards Prism Hotel at Clarkview Avenue when one of two men who approached her shot her with a 9 mm. pistol. In the first week of last April, Sin Jae Hu, 43, was also shot dead in front of his wife as they were having dinner outside a mini mart in Barangay Anunas.
Statistics have revealed that last year, 12 Koreans were killed and that since 2009, there have been 40 Koreans killed in the Philippines. Between 2009 and 2013, 44 percent of some 160 murder cases of Korean nationals abroad occurred in the Philippines, according to the South Korean foreign ministry.
In 2010, the Korean government pushed for the establishment of a South Korean Desk under the PNP to handle crimes involving Koreans. The South Korean foreign ministry dismissed claims that Koreans were being targeted by criminal elements.
“The Philippine’s criminal system is weak, and, without exception, the number of crimes and killings of visitors is rising for Chinese, Japanese and Americans alike. Each visitor should stay vigilant,” the ministry said.
Koreans are the biggest expatriate community in the Philippines. According to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 88,000 Koreans were living in the Philippines in 2012. The Department of Tourism, on the other hand, said more than 1.16 million Koreans entered the country last year.
