Saturday, October 21, 2006
Moro kidnapers free 4 captives
THE armed men who recently abducted three engineers and their driver released on Friday their hostages in the hinterlands of Sulu, which the military claimed was due to relentless rescue operations mounted by government forces.
Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, chief of the Armed Forces' public information office, also attributed the release of the four US Agency for International Development (Usaid) workers to negotiations mounted by local officials.
Usaid project manager Romeo Rivera, who is working under the Growth with Equity for Mindanao (GEM) program, and fellow engineers and Manila-based subcontractors Reynaldo Rubio and Larry Bautista and driver Isidro Amaran were released at around 7 a.m. at the village of Maalun, Indanan town.
The four were seized by a group of armed men last Wednesday along a road in Biid village in Parang. Military and police mounted rescue operations while naval assets were stationed at the coast of Sulu to prevent the abductors from fleeing from the province by sea.
Indanan town mayor Sugala Tinkahan initially took custody of the released hostages, who were working on a road project in Parang and Indanan towns. Governor Benjamin Loong was due to present the four to media on Friday.
Bacarro earlier said troops already pinpointed the whereabouts of the kidnappers, who he said, demanded for "board and lodging fee", a euphemism for ransom. He declined to say how much ransom did the kidnapers asked. (VR/Sunnex)
(October 21, 2006 issue)
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