2 teachers, midwife seized by gunmen

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Three government workers were abducted by armed men in separate cases in Sulu and Lanao del Norte on Monday, officials said yesterday.

The first abduction took place in Iligan City past 2 p.m. when two teachers reporting for work were snatched at gunpoint.

The city police identified the victims as Rene Somagang of Barangay Villaverde and Keno Sanchez of Barangay Tubod, both in Iligan City.

Randolph Tortola, Iligan City schools division superintendent, said an illegal logging syndicate could be behind the abduction of the teachers.

The abductors, said Tortola, left behind a note demanding a P4-million ransom for the teachers.

He said the logging syndicate could have turned to kidnapping after a total log ban had been declared in Iligan City in the wake of the massive destruction that the city suffered on Dec. 17 at the height of Tropical Storm “Sendong.”

Nearly 2,000 people were killed in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro City when Sendong struck the two northern Mindanao cities.

Remote area

Iligan City Councilor Moises Dalisay Jr. quoted reports from police as saying Somagang and Sanchez were riding a motorcycle and returning to Limonsodan Bayug Falls Elementary School in Barangay Rogongon when they were snatched.

Dalisay, chair of the city council’s public order and safety committee, said it took so much time for police to reach the area where the teachers were snatched because it was very remote and access was difficult.

He said police and soldiers formed a search and rescue team.

Councilor Ariel Anghay, chair of the Iligan City council committee on education, said authorities suspect that the abductors were “personalities involved in illegal logging” who lost their source of income to the total ban on logging in the city.

Sulu kidnapping

In Patikul, Sulu, still unidentified gunmen abducted another midwife.

Chief Supt. Mario Avenido, police chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Rosalyn Kiram, 54, was on her way home to Jolo, along with several other health workers, after bringing a mobile clinic to Patikul, when she was snatched.

Avenido said police have yet to determine the motive and suspects in the abduction.

Senior Supt. Antonio Freyra, Sulu police chief, said the gunmen had initially taken six health workers after flagging down their mobile clinic.

Freyra said five of the health workers were released an hour after the abduction, except for Kiram. The released health workers reported to police that Kiram had been taken by the gunmen.

Crisis committee

Freyra said Patikul town officials convened the crisis management committee to deal with the latest abduction.

Kiram was the second midwife kidnapped in Sulu.

In August last year, 57-year-old Evangeline Taverisma, of the Indanan Rural Health Unit, was also snatched while on her way home.

She was freed in October after paying so-called board and lodging fees to the kidnappers.

The government had failed to protect civilians in some of the remotest areas of Mindanao that had become lawless. Julie Alipala and Richel Umel, Inquirer Mindanao