MANILA/ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines?(UPDATE 2) Gunmen in camouflage stormed a plywood factory and abducted four workers in Basilan province Tuesday, a day after suspected Muslim extremists beheaded a kidnapped schoolteacher, officials said.
Four persons, two of them of Chinese descent, were taken at gunpoint by about 30 armed men who swooped on the compound of High-Tech Woodcraft Corp. in the village of Townsite, military and civilian officials said.
The latest abductions in the restive southern region, where al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf extremists have evaded US-backed Philippine offensives, came as the military promised a swift retaliation for the beheading of a teacher whose family failed to raise ransom money on Jolo Island.
The severed head of Gabriel Canizares, 36, was left in a bag at a Jolo town gas station Monday, three weeks after suspected Abu Sayyaf members stopped a passenger minibus and dragged him away in front of his colleagues.
Senior Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie identified the three victims as Michael Tan, 27; Oscar Tan Lu, 51; and Mark Singson, all employees of the plywood factory in Maluso town.
In Manila, police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said another person, identified as Jerry Tan, was also seized by the armed men, believed to be members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group.
?Two of the victims are Chinese nationals but we could not establish yet if they are relatives of the owner of the plywood factory,? Director Felizardo Serapio Jr., chief of the Western Mindanao Directorate for Integrated Police Operations, said.
The kidnappers and hostages, including two factory managers, were moving on foot and authorities were tracking them, said Basilan Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul. He suspected ransom was the motive for the attack.
Based on police reports, Sakalahul said the captors were equipped with high powered firearms ?and disguised themselves as military.?
Serapio said the armed men actually broke into the compound ?because the fences are made of wood.?
?They were able to take the victims and they fled in the direction of Sumisip,? he said.
The incident, Tulawie said, took place some 400 meters from the headquarters of the Army?s 32nd Infantry Battalion.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said he has ordered the Basilan Crisis Management Committee to ?come up with a very aggressive pursuit operation to discourage future effort of this nature.?
Puno declined to elaborate on what he meant by ?aggressive pursuit operation.?
?I don?t want to go into the details but there will be more visible changes in the way government deals with kidnapping and hopefully, this will result in fewer cases in the future,? he said.
He stressed that kidnapping had a "terroristic component in it.?
Puno did not say what group was behind the abduction but added that ?we already have some ideas who were behind this.?
Tulawie said among those being investigated was a company guard, who admitted that ?his son is a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.?
?Although we don?t see it as an inside job,? he said.
Tulawie immediately added that the police were not saying the MILF was involved in the kidnapping.
?We are not accusing the MILF here, investigations are still ongoing,? he said.
Beside the Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, members of a large Muslim separatist group also operate on Basilan.
Although the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is currently engaged in peace talks with the government on ending decades of a bloody Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, the military has in the past accused its Basilan unit of joining hands with the smaller but more brutal Abu Sayyaf.
The Abu Sayyaf, which is suspected of receiving funds from al-Qaida, is believed to have about 400 fighters.
Despite years of US military training and assistance, Filipino troops have struggled to contain the militants, who have recently intensified attacks on Jolo, blowing up bridges, firing mortar shells and setting off roadside bombs. With a report from The Associated Press
