Kidnapping delays Iligan graduation

ILIGAN CITY—Graduation rites for at least 20 pupils of an elementary school in a village here would be postponed following the kidnapping of two of the children’s teachers, a city official said.

The city school board decided to postpone graduation ceremonies for pupils of the Limonsodan Bayug Falls Elementary School in Barangay Rogongon here after teachers Keno Sanchez, 24; and Rene Sumagang, 27, were seized by gunmen on Monday and taken captive.

The kidnappers are demanding a P4-million ransom, according to city officials.

The two teachers had been kidnapped on the same day as the abduction of Rosalyn Kiram, 54, a government midwife in Sulu. Kiram had been released on Wednesday, about 48 hours after she was seized. The two Iligan teachers, however, are still in captivity.

Councilor Ariel Anghay, head of the city council’s committee on education and member of the school board, said the school where the two kidnap victims worked could even shut down because teachers are now afraid for their safety.

Plan scrapped

The kidnapping of Sanchez and Sumagang also prompted the school board to scrap a plan to build a high school in Barangay Rogongon.

Anghay said the graduation ceremony for the elementary school was originally set on March 30 but would have to be moved to another but yet unspecified date.

Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city government would not pay ransom to the kidnappers. He instead appealed to the kidnappers to release the teachers for humanitarian reasons.

Police, however, said operations are ongoing to rescue the teachers.

Supt. Celso Regencia, city police chief, said police are scouring the towns of Pantar, Kapai and Tagoloan II in Lanao del Sur where the teachers were believed to have been brought.

The towns, said Regencia, were those where the suspected leader of the kidnappers, a certain Managao Malana Elias, a former Moro rebel also known by his nom de guerre Commander Ayatollah, is believed to operate.

Criminal mind

Elias, according to Regencia, had been involved in logging and turned to other criminal activities like kidnapping after a total ban was declared in this city and other areas in reaction to the massive destruction and deaths that Iligan and Cagayan de Oro City suffered on Dec. 17 at the height of Tropical Storm “Sendong.”

Elias, according to Councilor Anghay, “is financially problematic.”

Midwife Kiram was released on Wednesday by her captors to the head of Barangay Maligay in Patikul, Sulu, according to Col. Jose Cenabre, deputy naval commander for Western Mindanao.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding, health secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Kiram’s boss, said the local crisis committee was involved in negotiations to free Kiram.

The identities of the gunmen who seized Kiram, however, were not made known. Sinolinding said it was not clear, too, why Kiram was abducted.

“God is good,” said Sinolinding in a phone interview shortly after he confirmed reports that Kiram has been freed.

Kiram was on her way home on Monday when abducted in Barangay Liang in Patikul. Richel Umel, Tito Fiel and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao