PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 29, 2014) – Police captured one of the alleged abductors of a school official in Kumalarang town in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur.
Police said Ryan Tumalas, 22, was captured in the village of Picanan and is being implicated in the recent abduction of Rudy Luna, a supervisor of the Department of Education.
Tumalas was tracked down by the police after a village councilman Virgilio Bayona spotted him acting suspiciously and phoned the authorities.
Luna’s wife, who escaped from the abductors in the same village, has identified Tumalas – a native of Zamboanga del Norte’s Siayan town – as among 8 gunmen who barged in their house and seized her husband.
Police are interrogating Tumalas, but officials would not say whether the man is a member of a rebel group or a kidnapping syndicate, saying the investigation is still going on.
Luna’s fate is still unknown and the abductors have not contacted his family or demanded any ransom. (Mindanao Examiner)
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