A warning against incidents of extortion and hold-up of hotel guests that have been taking place in Manila was aired yesterday by Bacolod Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue.

Batapa-Sigue said that during her recent trip to Manila on Feb. 16 to 17, an unidentified woman claiming to be a front desk clerk of the hotel they were staying at called up their room at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday looking for a member of her staff whose name was registered in the hotel, and asked her who were her companions in the room.

Thinking that the woman was really from the hotel the employee gave their names.

The woman said they were conducting a security check and someone was looking for her. She said that an Arab-looking man named "Albert Mohammad," was looking for her, and insisted on going to their room but was not allowed by the manager, she added.

The woman later managed to get her employee's mobile phone number, Batapa-Sigue said, and called to tell her that they are connected with the Abu Sayyaf and a Senator and are part of the maintenance crew of the hotel, monitoring all the halls and bedrooms, she said.

Batapa-Sigue said she grabbed the phone and asked "what do you want?" and was told it was "any financial assistance" and instructed to leave the money somewhere inside the hotel.

Batapa-Sigue said they called up the police and later the hotel manager told her there was no one looking for her employee.

She said hotel personnel told them later that extortion and hold-up incidents have been happening in other hotels.

The manager of the hotel wanted to entrap the suspects and send them to jail because they are hurting the tourism industry, Batapa-Sigue said.

She also reported the incident to the National Bureau of Investigation who provided them security, she said.*CGS

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