
ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 7, 2013) – Unidentified gunmen seized a Filipino business couple on Sunday in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga, police said.
Police said the duo – Ronnie San Dagon, 50, and Nancy Gonato, 38, – were abducted inside a private wharf in the village of Baliwasan where the duo runs a buying station for lobsters and other marine products.
The couple runs a company called Ocean World Marine Products in Zamboanga City.
Police said at least 5 gunmen were involved in the abduction and that the duo was dragged into a waiting speed boat.
It was not immediately known whether the abductors are members of the Abu Sayyaf which is actively operating in Zamboanga City and nearby provinces of Basilan and Sulu.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the latest abduction which occurred barely a month after the Abu Sayyaf freed a kidnapped Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell in exchange for P4 million ransom.
Rodwell was seized by 5 gunmen, who posed as policemen, from his seaside house in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province in December 2011. (Mindanao Examiner. Eli D. Umaboc)