ZAMBOANGA CITY, 21 October 2006 — Gunmen yesterday freed the three engineers and driver they have kidnapped in the southern island of Jolo amid a military ultimatum and threats of reprisals by irate villagers
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Troops tracking down the kidnappers spotted the four victims walking on a village near the boundaries of Parang and Indanan towns, minus their abductors, said Col. Reynaldo Sealana, commander of an army brigade in the troubled island.
The victims, including an engineer in charge of a road project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Parang town, were seized on Tuesday by the very men who were tasked to secure them after an inspection trip near Biid village, officials had said.
“The kidnappers freed the hostages without ransom because of mounting military pressure,” Sealana told Arab News.
The victims were engineers Romeo Rivera, a program manager working for the USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao project (USAID-GEM); and Reynaldo Rubio and Larry Bautista of the Manila-based Terra Zyme Chemicals; and their driver Amarano Lapus (not Isidro Amarano as earlier reported).
They were brought to a military hospital in Zamboanga City where doctors examined them.
Sealana said the kidnappers freed the hostages before a 24-hour military ultimatum for their release was to end yesterday.
He said villagers angered by the incident also threatened to seize the families and relatives of the kidnappers if they don’t free the four men.
But regional police chief Joel Goltiao and Maj. Joseph Alegado, commander of the Philippine Army’s 15th Light Armor Company, had a different account. They said the four escaped from their captors late on Wednesday.
“They escaped; that is what they told the police,” Goltiao said.
Quoting Rubio
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“So when their guard fell asleep, the four inched their way out of the makeshift lair and (untied) themselves. They then ran as fast as they could,” Alegado said.
Matthew Lussenhop, information officer of the US Embassy in Manila, had said the incident could delay the implementation of USAID-GEM projects in Sulu but it would not deter America’s commitment to help in the development of province. “We are committed to push with the development efforts on the island,” he said.
Rewarded
Also yesterday, military officials rewarded a civilian informant P150,000 for helping soldiers capture an Abu Sayyaf militant implicated in the kidnapping of three US citizens five years ago.
Brig. Gen. Francisco Callero handed the money to the masked informant inside the tightly guarded Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Zamboanga City.
“This reward is part of the government program to encourage civilians to help us in the campaign against terrorism,” Callero told Arab News.
The informant, wearing a sweat shirt and a pair of dark sunglasses, did not speak to reporters after receiving the money and was whisked away by soldiers. Callero said the man led soldiers in capturing Isnain Aminul in Basilan Island in 2004.
The military tagged Aminul as one of Abu Sayyaf gunmen who kidnapped Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and California man Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipino holiday makers on the posh Dos Palmas resort in the southwestern Philippine province of Palawan in 2001.
Guillermo Sobero was beheaded that same year in Basilan while Martin Burnham was shot dead a year later during a US-led military rescue operation in the province of Zamboanga del Norte.
The Abu Sayyaf had carried high-profile kidnappings in the past, including a daring raid on the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in 2000 where it seized 21 Asian and European holiday-makers.
Washington has offered as much as $5 million bounty for known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including its chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani. President Gloria Arroyo also put up a total of P100 million in rewards for the capture of the group’s leaders and their members.
(With input from Inquirer News Service)
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