AFP says ransom paid for Mindanao professor

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Western Mindanao State University instructor Alrashid Rojas, who was kidnapped here on June 22, was freed in Jolo, Sulu province, on Wednesday.

Colonel Andrelino Colina, head of Task Force Zamboanga, said the victim’s family allegedly paid ransom.

Colina said they were still trying to determine how Rojas was released in Sulu.

“But we have identified some suspects in his abduction. It’s a kidnap for ransom group with links in Talipao town,” Colina said.

He said Rojas’ captors belonged to the same group that kidnapped Flordeliza Ongchua and Eddie Fabella in the west coast of this city.

On Nov. 13, 2012, armed men stormed the house of school teacher Ongchua in Labuan village in this city. She was freed more than a month later in Barangay (village) Sto Nino in Jolo.

Fabella, a businessman, was kidnapped in Maasin village here on Jan. 11. He was freed at the Jolo port on Feb. 22. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao