The campaign manager of losing Quezon City congressional candidate Vivienne Tan, daughter of business tycoon Lucio Tan, on Tuesday complained of being abducted the day before by two unidentified men allegedly in police uniforms. Susan Tagle, Tan’s campaign manager, filed abduction and theft charges before Quezon City police on Tuesday after she was supposedly “verbally abused" and held for eight hours on Monday by two men in uniform. Tagle said two unidentified men “forced" her to alight from her car and ride a police vehicle while she was driving at the corner of Scout Tobias and Scout Lozano in Quezon City at 5 a.m. on Monday.
“Initially, I refused since I was not informed of any charges or violations but one of them showed his gun to me so I didn’t have a choice," she said in a statement.
She added that her abductors even threatened to “make her disappear" and “throw her body into a river" while she was held inside the police vehicle.
Tagle, who also served as the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.’s personal assistant during his 2004 presidential campaign, said the two men took P30,000 from her wallet before releasing her later in the afternoon.
In a separate interview, Tan said Tagle’s abduction was “election-related" and might have been caused by her “main opponent."
“I am very enraged by all these harassment being done to my supporters. These can’t possibly be random incidents… We have reason to believe that all these are done either as retaliations because of the truth that we spoke about during the campaign period or as harassments for us to stop our search for the truth," she said. Tan was defeated in the May 10 polls by incumbent Rep. Vicente “Bingbong" Singson-Crisologo for Quezon City’s first district congressional seat. (See: Local Count, National Capital Region, Quezon City)
Philippine National Police chief Jesus Verzosa has already ordered an investigation into the alleged abduction, Tagle’s statement said.—Andreo C. Calonzo/JV
