ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 22, 2014) – Kidnappers have released a school supervisor after more than eight months in captivity in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.
Inspector Dahlan Samuddin, a regional police spokesman, said Rudy Luna was freed late Wednesday in the town of Tukuran in Zamboanga del Sur province.
Luna told police investigators that he was transported by four gunmen on two motorized boats and abandoned him at a local wharf and walked alone until he reached his brother’s house.
“The kidnapped victim was fetched by the members of the Police Anti-Kidnapping Group and Zamboanga Del Sur Provincial Police Office and subsequently brought to Pagadian City Medical Center where he is now confined,” he said.
Samuddin did not say if ransom was paid by the family to the kidnappers in exchange for Luna’s safe release. Luna is the supervisor of the Kumalarang Central Elementary School.
He said Luna and his wife Tessie were both seized by eight gunmen inside their house in Zamboanga del Sur’s Kumalarang town in January, but the woman managed to escape and told authorities about the incident.
Police captured one of the alleged kidnappers Ryan Tumalas, 22, during a follow operation in Kumalarang’s Picanan village. Tumalas was tracked down by the police after a village councilman Virgilio Bayona spotted him acting suspiciously and phoned the authorities.
Luna’s wife has identified Tumalas – a native of Zamboanga del Norte’s Siayan town – as among 8 gunmen who barged in their house. It was unknown whether the man is a member of a rebel group or a kidnapping syndicate. (Mindanao Examiner)
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