ZAMBOANGA CITY, 2 December 2003 — Gunmen shot and killed a Philippine soldier escorting the son of a former Estrada Cabinet official in a botched kidnapping attempt in the southern port city of Zamboanga, police said.

Gunmen on two vehicles opened fire on the car carrying Richie Wee, the son of Wee Dee Ping, a former economic secretary of former President Joseph Estrada, while traveling near their home at dawn on Sunday.

Wee escaped unscathed from the attack, but one of his two escorts was killed when he tried to fight off the gunmen in the village of Villa Santa Maria, a close family friend said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but family sources suspect the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the series of terrorism and kidnappings-for-ransom in the southern Philippines, could be behind what they believed was a failed kidnapping.

The gunmen retreated after the attack.

Former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, now commander of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf), yesterday ordered the police and military to track down the gunmen and intensified security in Zamboanga City.

“Government forces are now working to track down these perpetrators and police and military are intensifying patrols in Zamboanga City and we assure the public that is still safe out there. Let us help each other. Civilians can provide authorities with information, particularly on suspicious persons in their locality and we will swiftly act on these reports,” Reyes told reporters.

A regional Philippine Army commander Maj. Gen. Trifonio Salazar said soldiers have intensfied security patrols in Zamboanga City to help the local police.

The Wee family owns several companies and is engaged in seaweed business in the Philippines. Wee Dee Ping, a philantropist and a respected leader in the Chinese community in Zamboanga City, served as Estrada’s secretary for economic affairs in Mindanao.

He also played a key role in the release of about a dozen Malaysian hostages kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels from the Sipadan tourist resort off of Sabah in 2000. Wee also previously ran for the mayoralty post in Zamboanga City, but lost.

Wee’s family in the past had police escorts, but all of them were pulled out after Estrada was deposed in January 2001 by a people power revolution that catapulted Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into power.