Tere Paras, AUF director for external affairs, has issued advisory via her Facebook account asking students not to talk to strangers after one incident that almost victimized a student last May 5.
“A male student was approached by a suspicious man at noon time (May 5) just in front of 7-11, only a few meters from the police kababayan center (near AUF’s main gate). The stranger who alighted from a van packed with unidentified men, pretended to be asking for directions,” she said.
Paras said that suddenly, the suspect tried to push the student into the van. “The student was saved by his presence of mind by warding off the stranger and heading straight to the campus,” she said, adding “let this be a warning to all of us and our loved ones.”
One Liza Llorente also reported that a few days after the incident, her son, also a student of AUF, also successfully fended off apparently the same suspects also somewhere near the gate of the university. The van was positioned near the foot of a pedestrian bridge near the university medical center, she noted.
Reacting to the reports, Pamintuan said “we will be on guard,” stressing that “the PNP of Angeles City has been ordered to track down that van.”
There have been persistent reports of men in a van driving around urban centers, including Mabalacat City in Pampanga, apparently in search of young people, regardless of sex, whom they had attempted to abduct. Some reports said some abduction attempts had been successful, but police have never confirmed this amid lack of complainants.
In Quiapo, Manila last year, video footage of a van boarded by men who unsuccessfully tried to abduct a male youth was aired by a television news network.
