ZAMBOANGA CITY – Abu Sayyaf rebels have freed a 42-year old man they kidnapped in Zamboanga Sibugay province in southern Philippines, but are still holding on to his son in Sulu province in the Muslim autonomous region.
Elmer Romoc was released on November 14 in Jolo town and traveled alone on a ferry for Zamboanga City where his wife, Nora, and other relatives and policemen fetched him the next day. It was unknown how much ransom his family paid to the Abu Sayyaf.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command on Wednesday confirmed the release of Romoc who was immediately taken to police headquarters here where he gave a statement, but details of the debriefing were not made public.
The military tagged Ador Abdullah and Haber Susukan as behind the kidnappings of the family.
Romoc, his wife and son, Ricson, 8, were kidnapped on August 5 this year from the village of Kulisap in Payao town and spirited out on a motorboat and brought to Sulu.
The rebels freed his wife on August 22 so she can raise money to pay the ransom. The woman, who took a boat in Jolo for Zamboanga City, arrived by bus in her cousin’s house in Siay town also in Zamboanga Sibugay where she stayed for a while.
Authorities believed the woman’s relatives paid an unspecified amount of ransom to the Abu Sayyaf for her liberty and to raise money for the safe release of her husband and son. However, it was not immediately known why the Abu Sayyaf held on to the child.
Another faction of the Abu Sayyaf is still holding over a dozen Malaysian and Indonesian sailors, including a 70-year old German boater kidnapped in Sabah, Malaysia. (Mindanao Examiner)
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