It resulted in the kidnapping of three ICRC workers Thursday by suspected members of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf gang in broad daylight right at the Sulu provincial capitol.

Taken at gunpoint were Andreas Notter, 38, a Swiss national who headed the ICRC branch in Zamboanga City; Eugenio Vagni, 62, of Italy; and Filipino engineer Jean Lacaba, 37, according to Senior Supt. Julasirim Kasim, Sulu police chief.

The three were stuffed inside their vehicle with the Red Cross insignia just after they had conducted an interview with jail officials at the Area Coordinating Center, a conference hall between the provincial capitol building and the provincial jail.

Three other Filipino ICRC workers were left behind—medical officer Dr. Richie Sorilla, senior field officer Ramon Catacutan and field officer Mohamad Shihata Jikiri.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross, warned that the kidnapping could cause an international uproar.

“These are innocent civilians performing humanitarian missions and are protected by international humanitarian law. It’s an international crime to attack any personnel or transportation or any Red Cross equipment, anything which bears the Red Cross symbol,” he said.

“These are the personnel who helped your families during conflicts,” Gordon said. “Give them back to us.”

Province ‘in shame’

The six-member ICRC team arrived in Jolo on Wednesday, a day after a jailbreak in which 12 inmates escaped and another was killed.

“Right now we are forming a crisis management committee for this incident,” said John Robert Esperat of the ICRC Davao sub-delegation staff.

An apparently irked Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the abduction put the province “in shame.”

“I will not forgive this incident and I am warning the families of the suspected kidnappers to better cooperate with the authorities otherwise, we will treat them like kidnappers,” Tan said in a phone interview.

Vehicle recovered

The governor said the ICRC vehicle was found two hours after the 11 a.m. abduction, in the village of Banganan, 7 kilometers away from the capitol.

“It contains two bags probably belonging to two of three ICRC personnel,” he said.

All military and police forces have been mobilized to go after the suspects and their victims, Tan said. “We are on the right track and we are hoping soon that we’ll get them,” Tan said.

Kasim told the Inquirer by phone that the victims had just interviewed officials of the Sulu provincial jail.

Tan said that the ICRC was planning to help in the rehabilitation of the provincial jail following Thursday’s jailbreak. The team was looking at water and sanitation facilities.

Brig. Gen. Eugene Clemen, commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade based in Patikul, said the victims were on their way out of the capitol compound when the armed men ordered them to board the ICRC vehicle.

Abu Sayyaf blamed

“Some witnesses informed us that three of the Filipino passengers (Sorilla, Catacutan and Jikiri) were forced to leave the vehicle,” Clemen said.

“We were wondering why they were taken just outside the jail facility,” he said.

The jail is just about five meters away from the provincial capitol and a few steps away from the Area Coordinating Center.

An Abu Sayyaf group under Albader Parad is believed to be behind the kidnapping, Clemen said.

Esperat said the ICRC staff visited the provincial jail to look into the condition of the prisoners there.

“That’s why an engineer, Jean Lacaba, was there to assess the facility and find out how we could help the prisoners there,” Esperat said.

Gov’t issues warning

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said “hot pursuit operations” were under way and warned foreign and local travelers to coordinate their movements with security officials in the area.

“Certain measures are also being pursued in the light of the fact that ICRC is an international agency that adheres to neutrality,” Dureza said.

Lt. Estefani Cacho, a military spokesperson, said the ICRC group was offered armed security escorts by the local Army.

“They were duly advised about the security situation on the island but, being a neutral organization, had denied armed escorts,” Cacho said.

Work continues

ICRC’s Roland Bigler said in Manila the agency would not suspend its humanitarian work in other parts of the south, where hundreds of thousands have been displaced by fighting between government troops and Muslim militants.

“There will be no work stoppage. Our humanitarian work on the ground will continue,” Bigler said.

The ICRC has been in the Philippines since 1982, assisting and protecting civilians affected by the conflict in Mindanao. As of 2009, the ICRC in Manila has a 132-man staff, including 26 expatriates.

It was the most high-profile kidnapping of foreigners since 2001, when Abu Sayyaf gunmen snatched nearly two dozen tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, including three Americans. One was beheaded and the other was killed during a military rescue operation.

The incident prompted Washington to deploy troops in Mindanao starting in 2002, but they are barred from combat.

A year earlier, Abu Sayyaf seized about 20 foreign tourists from Malaysia’s Sipadan resort and held them on Jolo for several months before they were released in exchange for millions of dollars, reportedly paid by Libya. With reports from Michael Lim Ubac, Cynthia D. Balana, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters