ZAMBOANGA CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte flew to the southern province of Sulu and visited soldiers wounded in clashes with Abu Sayyaf militants, but the jihadist group seized 4 people despite ongoing military offensive in the hinterlands.
Duterte also pinned medals to 13 soldiers at a military hospital in the capital town of Jolo. The soldiers were wounded in a clash with militants under Almujer Yada in Patikul town on July 7.
It was unknown whether the military reported the kidnappings to Duterte or if he was aware of the latest atrocity of the Abu Sayyaf. The four – Felimon Cordero, Edmund Ramos, Joel Adanza and Jason Baylosis – were also abducted in Patikul, a known stronghold of the extremist group.
The victims were all construction workers and residents of Zamboanga City. Another worker, Larry Velasquez, managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf and reported the matter to the police.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command did not release any report on the abductions, but said troops also killed a notorious Abu Sayyaf bomb expert, Ibno Moro, in the village of Kamagong in Bongao town in the neighboring province of Tawi-Tawi.
Moro, a follower of militant leader Radulan Sahiron in Sulu province, was involved in the 1989 massacre of civilian in Bongao’s Lapid-Lapid village and the 2004 kidnapping of Sibuto town Mayor Kuyoh Pajiji, including the 2002 kidnapping of Alvin Chua also in Bongao.
He was also linked to the 2004 murder of Rodrigo Alejandro Sr. and his son, Rodrigo Jr. in Buan village in the town of Panglima Sugala in Tawi-Tawi. (Mindanao Examiner)
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