ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 8, 2012) – Philippine authorities have mounted an operation to rescue a gasoline depot owner abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants in the restive southern region.
Officials said seven gunmen barged late Saturday in the house of Engineer Carlos Tee, who also works at the Air Transportation Office in Jolo town, and seized him.
“We suspect the Abu Sayyaf as behind the abduction and operation is going on to recover him safely,” Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a regional army spokesman, told the Mindanao Examiner.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the latest abduction, but the Abu Sayyaf has been largely blamed for numerous kidnappings for ransom in the town and other areas in the southern Philippines.
Cabangbang said the gunmen dragged Tee to a waiting get-away jeep and sped off under cover of darkness.
Police said the same jeep was also used in previous kidnappings. The abductors have not contacted Tee’s family.
Just last month, Abu Sayyaf militants led by Ninok Sapari also seized a health worker Rosalyn Kiram, 54, in Patikul town and freed her after ransom was paid.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding a kidnapped Japanese man, Katayama Mamaito, 63, a treasure hunter who was kidnapped in June 2010 on the island-town of Pangutaran. And also two Filipino fishermen, Renato Panisales and Wennie Ferrer – all employees of the Mega Fishing Corporation in Zamboanga City – after they were seized at sea off Sulu in March 2011. Their companion, Jonald Ocsimar, was freed in July last year after his family paid P300,000 ransom.
Another faction of the Abu Sayyaf is holding Warren Rodwell, 57, an Australian adventurer kidnapped in December 2011 from his seaside house in Zamboanga Sibugay’s Ipil town.
Police said an Indian national, Biju Kolara Veetil, 36, who was kidnapped in June last year on the southern province of Sulu, was killed by the Abu Sayyaf for a still unknown reason despite ransoms paid by his Filipina wife, Elena Asanji.
Veetil and his wife were visiting the woman’s family in the village of Tempok in Patikul town when four gunmen seized the foreigner.
A Malaysian gecko trader – Mohammad Nasaruddin Bensaidin – who was also kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in April 2011, had been released after a local negotiator paid ransom to the gang. The 38-year old Malaysian arrived in Sulu in April last year from Kuala Lumpur and had been living in a house in the village of Kajatian in Indanan town when he was kidnapped.
Muslim gunmen are also holding hostage a Dutch and a Swiss wildlife photographers Elwold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, of Switzerland, after kidnapping the in the remote southern province of Tawi-Tawi.
A senior military official, quoting an intelligence report, said are being held by a commander of the Moro National Liberation Front for ransom. (Mindanao Examiner)
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