Militiamen thwart kidnap attempt on 3 teachers

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Quick-acting militiamen and villagers, some of them armed with machetes, thwarted the abduction of three teachers from a public school on an outlying island off Zamboanga City by unidentified armed men, the military and police reported Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, said the teachers were in their classrooms at the Limaong Elementary School at Sitio (sub-village) Tiqui on the island of Limaong when the armed men arrived and attempted to abduct them Thursday afternoon.

Police said, however, that the teachers were out of their classrooms on a break.

Superintendent Edwin De Ocampo, Zamboanga City police director, identified the teachers as Maria Riza dela Cruz, 30; Maria Lerma Cabiles, 27; and Kristine Mae Mariano, 25.

He said the teachers were about to go out of the school campus for a break around 3:50 p.m. when six masked men suddenly emerged and dragged them away at gunpoint.

“There was a commotion and villagers saw they were being forcibly dragged. Some witnesses, who happened to be members of the civilian volunteers, responded and fired warning shots,” De Ocampo said.

The armed men continued to drag the captives away but decided to abandon the teachers when they reached the shoreline, where more villagers—some armed with machetes—were waiting, he said.

“They fled and the only thing they got were personal belongings like the bags of the teachers,” De Ocampo said.

Abelardo Brutas, secretary general of the Teachers in the Philippines Public Sector (TOPPS), said the incident showed that teachers were continuously under threat from kidnap groups.

In 2009, three teachers were kidnapped near Pangapuyan Island here while they traveling to the city proper on a motorboat.

There was also the 2009 kidnapping of Sulu teacher Gabriel Canizares, who was killed by his abductors.

“Please make sure that our teachers in far-flung villages are properly secured and protected,” he said in an appeal to authorities.

Thursday’s foiled kidnap attempt occurred as Western Mindanao authorities were still dealing with two earlier abductions— those of Australian Warren Richard Rodwell and Filipino-American teenager Kevin Lunsmann.

Australian Embassy officials met secretly on Tuesday with military, police and Zamboanga Sibugay officials, including Zamboanga Sibugay Governor Rommel Jalosjos, with respect to the kidnapping of the Australian, the governor said.

But Jalosjos said Canberra was not intervening in efforts to rescue the 53-year old native of Strathfield in New South Wales.

“They were just touching base basically, and I gave them assurance of full support including the information they needed,” he said.

Rodwell, a retired Australian Army soldier, was inside the house he bought in Ipil town after marrying 27-year-old local Miraflor Gutang, when snatched by armed men on Dec. 5.

Miraflor said the kidnappers have not contacted her yet.

The authorities said there were no significant developments in the case of Lunsmann, who was abducted from Tictabon Island near here along with his mother Gerfa Yeatts and a Filipino relative Romnick Jakaria in July. Gerfa was released in October while Romnick was freed in November.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the last report they got was that Kevin had been transferred by the kidnappers to Indanan, Sulu.

“That has to be verified still. All efforts are being done to secure him from the kidnappers,” he said.

Originally posted: 8:26 am | Friday, December 9th, 2011