SULU – Security forces launched a massive operation to rescue four people, two of them policewomen, who were seized by Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province in the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
Policemen and soldiers were searching for police officers Benierose Alvarez and Dinah Gumahad who are assigned with the crime laboratory and engineering department and civilians Jakosalem Blas and Faizal Ahidji.
They were travelling on a motorcycle taxi on Sunday afternoon when about a dozen gunmen flagged down their vehicle in Liang village in Patikul town and took them away. Police have identified the gang’s leader as Mujir Yada.
It was unknown why no policemen and soldiers were guarding the highway or why authorities failed to prevent the abductions despite an extended martial rule on the whole southern region.
Just recently, Abu Sayyaf militants also killed the 38-year old Edmiraldo Sollano, an employee of the Sulu Integrated Provincial Health Office in the capital town of Jolo. Sollano gunned down while driving home on a motorcycle in San Raymundo village on April 12. The attackers also drove off with Sollano’s motorcycle.
Military and police authorities have miserably failed to impose tight security not only in Jolo, but elsewhere in the province, including Patikul town where the Capitol Building is located.
Abu Sayyaf militants had previously attacked Jolo and kidnapped innocent civilians despite the presence of military and police camps in the town. Even the town’s police headquarters are not safe anymore and also attacked in the past.
Police and military checkpoints and patrol were also limited in many towns and by nightfall there are hardly any soldiers and policemen guarding vital government installations in Jolo and nearby areas.
Governor Toto Tan has repeatedly rallied his mayors to work hard in protecting their communities and at the same time working hard to lure investors to put up business in Sulu. Tan had repeatedly ordered authorities to impose a tighter security in the town and for the military to help police in maintaining peace and order in the province.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has removed last year the supervision of the local executives over the police, which relied heavily on the support of local governments in their campaign against criminality. (Mindanao Examiner)
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