Troops recover kidnapped son of Zamboanga fish trader

Photo released by the 102nd Infantry Brigade under Col. Gerry Barrientos to the Mindanao Examiner newspaper shows Meljohn Auditor who is reunited with his family in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province after troops recovered him in Payao town on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Auditor was kidnapped by armed men on March 11 while visiting the family’s fish pond in Ipil town. 

ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 14, 2012) – Government troops recovered Saturday a kidnapped son of a fish trader after his captors abandoned him in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga Sibugay, officials said.

Officials said troops, acting on information provided by villagers, tracked down Meljohn Auditor at around 5 a.m. abandoned in a fish cage in the village of Bulawan in Payao town in the province.

“We received information from civilians about the victim and we successfully rescued him inside the fish cage,” Army Col.  Gerry Barrientos, commander of military forces in Zamboanga Peninsula, told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said the kidnappers fled before soldiers could arrive in the area. “Troops are still tracking down the kidnappers,” he said.

Auditor, 20, the son of a village official, was seized by six gunmen on March 11 while visiting the family’s fishpond in Magdaup village in Ipil town.

Authorities have tagged Muslim rebels as behind the kidnapping. It was not immediately known whether the family paid ransom to the kidnappers. (Mindanao Examiner)