Rebels free 1 of 5 power firm employees (7:58 p.m.)
ZAMBOANGA CITY — Abudctors released one of the five kidnapped electric firm employees in Basilan several hours after the victims were seized, a police official said Friday.
Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, Basilan police provincial director, identified the freed hostage as Ronnie Tansiong, an engineering department personnel of the Basilan Electric Cooperative (Baselco).
Baselco is the sole power distributor in the entire province of Basilan.
The police said Tansiong was freed around 7 p.m. Thursday eight hours after they were seized by the combined group of Abu Sayyaf bandits and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels.
Tansiong, along with Emilberto Singson, Alberto Singson, Paul Herwig and Ian Herwig were seized around 11 a.m. Thursday in Barangay Sinulatan in the town of Tuburan.
The victims were conducting a house-to-house meter reading of Baselco consumers in Barangay Sinulatan when the group arrived and seized them.
Macapantar said there are no demands yet from the abductors who reportedly brought the hostages to Barangay Mangalot of the nearby town of Akbar. (Bong P. Garcia/Sunnex)
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