PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 5, 2012) – Filipino gunmen abducted 2 Chinese traders in Zamboanga Sibugay, bring to three the numbers of foreigners seized in that southern Philippine province since last year, police and military said Tuesday.
It said at least 6 men raided the apartment of Jampong Lin-Yuankai, 38, and Jian Luo, 48, in the town of Kabasalan late Monday and seized the duo at gunpoint and dragged them to a waiting van.
“We are doing our best to locate the two victims. Police and military forces are now tracking down the abductors and their hostages,” Chief Superintendent Manuel Barcena, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations for Western Mindanao, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Policemen and soldiers pursuing the gunmen recovered the vehicle – burned at a nearby coastal village – without any sign of the victims, who are natives of Guangdong province.
Both foreigners are engaged in buying and selling of manganese and other minerals and have been living in the town since last year.
No individual of group claimed responsibility for the latest abduction, according to Chief Superintendent Napoleon Estilles, the regional police commander.
In December last year, gunmen disguised as policemen also kidnapped an Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell, 52, in the neighbouring town of Ipil. The kidnappers originally demanded $2 million dollars, but lowered this to P20 million, in exchange for Rodwell, who is married to a Filipina, Miraflor Gutang, 27.
Rodwell is believed being held in Basilan, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, and said that they have difficulty in tracking down Rodwell and his captors since they continuously moved from one hideout to another.
“Even the intelligence units have not come up with new information about Rodwell,” he said.
The kidnappers have released last month a new video and a set of photographs showing Rodwell holding a newspaper. (Mindanao Examiner)
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