MANILA (AFP) -- A black cloud of anger and despair has descended on the ethnic Chinese community in the Philippines as they prepare to bury a young woman abducted and killed in Asia's kidnapping capital.

Betti Sy, a fast-rising Manila-based executive of U.S. soft drink giant Coca-Cola, was found dead by a roadside in southern Manila on Tuesday, her bullet-torn corpse wrapped in a white shroud and stuffed in a black trash bag.

The viciousness of her abduction and killing -- Philippines police suspect the 32-year-old bled to death before her captors telephoned her family to demand a 10 million-peso (181,000-dollar) ransom -- has shocked the business community. Chinese Filipino leaders plan to turn her funeral Sunday into a mammoth street protest. In fliers distributed at her wake, they urged citizens to "show our anger against the rampage of kidnapping that is terrorizing our lives."

Successive Filipino leaders have grappled with kidnap gangs since the early 1990s.

The last time the small and tightly-knit Chinese-Filipino community took to the streets in anger was in 1993, when they buried a kidnapped schoolgirl who was shot dead in a bungled police rescue attempt.

"We haven't seen it this bad for 10 years," said Teresita See, a community leader.

Sy's killing also highlights the phenomenal economic success of the descendants of immigrants from China, the prey of choice of more than a dozen known kidnap gangs.

Ethnic Chinese hold many of the economic levers of power. They own the country's biggest shopping malls, most of its biggest banks and many of its biggest manufacturing companies.

Two generations ago, "you would see Chinese selling bean curd on the street. Now they are the ones buying," said Edgardo Diansuy of the government's Commission on Human Rights. Diansuy, who said his father has Chinese blood, told AFP there was a public perception that "the Chinese have a submissive tendency and tended not to report kidnappings to the police."

Community leaders say this was because they feared rogue cops were in league with the gangs. As a safety precaution, some families send children to school abroad or buy guns. Others have left the country.

Many victims have banded together into groups to provide advice, moral support, and at times even help deliver ransoms, according to See. She said she served as a clearing house linking support groups and police with the families of new victims. See said that "in most instances, even if they (victims' relatives) get the cooperation of the police, they're allowed to pay ransom. Up to this point, I don't think we have the capability to effect safe rescues."

Another ethnic Chinese source told AFP that in the past some gangs did not even bother to actually kidnap their targets.

They simply telephoned the potential victims, read back to them their prepared schedule for the day and the routes and vehicles they would be taking, and gave the terrified targets a bank account number where a ransom would have to be deposited.

Senate president Franklin Drilon said there have been 156 kidnappings this year and 176.7 million pesos (3.2 million dollars) paid in ransom. Six out of 10 abductions occurred in Manila. "This is an astounding and frightening record," he said. "This type of criminality strikes at the heart of our economy, discouraging investments and business expansion."

Diansuy said there was also a danger the rising frequency of abductions would lead to public apathy.

President Gloria Arroyo's response to the latest abduction was swift and blunt. Four of the alleged kidnappers, including the gang leader were killed and eight others arrested in a series of police raids.

"Let us show these criminals that the law never sleeps, and they cannot escape it," she said.