PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 13, 2014) – Kidnappers have released in early Thursday a village chieftain after three months in captivity in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Norte, reports said.
It said Cecilia Alas-as was freed in the town of Sibuco where she had been seized by gunmen in December last year. Her family rushed the official to a private hospital in Zamboanga City because of her medical condition.
Alas-as was reportedly very weak when kidnappers released her in the village of Malayal. It was unknown how much ransom her family paid in exchange for the politician’s freedom.
One of her neighbors described Alas-as as a kind woman and claimed her kidnappers were probably also from her village. Alas-as is the chieftain of Paniran village also in Sibuco town, a known stronghold of Moro rebels.
Police earlier reported the capture of Jasser Siddik, one of Alas-as alleged kidnappers, after he was positively identified by her son. Gunmen barged in the house of Alas-as and seized her. Police also tagged two other suspects as Yusoph Maliki and Jumrani who are all at large.
Authorities are still searching for a fish broker Cynthia Caboverde, 48, who was abducted in Ipil town in the neighboring Zamboanga Sibugay province. One of her abductors, Adznar Chiong, 25, had been arrested in a police operation and has been identified by the woman’s driver and her cousin Ricky Baid Albon.
The woman, a resident of Dipolog City, was seized on their way home in Magdaup village where she and her partner Edrin Agca distributed salaries to employees. The gunmen also seized the couple’s bag containing P800,000 and then dragged the woman to a waiting motorized boat. Caboverde’s partner and Albon were both left behind by the abductors for a still unknown reason. (Ely Dumaboc)
20