Police releases sketches of suspects behind Salug mayor kidnapping

Police on Monday released the computer-generated sketches of four suspects in the abduction of Mayor Jeffrey Lim of Salug town in Zamboanga del Norte.

Lim was snatched on April 2 at the public terminal of Salug by a group of armed men.

Provincial Police Chief Senior Superintendent Ramon Ochotorena said they could not link the suspects to any group. “What we have are vivid descriptions of the role of these four suspects during the abduction,” Ochotorena told the Inquirer by phone.

He added that the computer-generated sketches included the face of the man who approached the mayor, showing him a folder with a supposed arrest warrant and telling him that he was being arrested.

As the mayor was questioning the supposed arrest warrant, three other suspects grabbed him and forced him into a mini-van, Ochotorena said.

Witnesses said the suspects were armed and wore camouflage uniforms.

“The witnesses thought it was a police operation. They later learned that it was an abduction,” Ochotorena added.

The military’s 1st Tabak Division commander Brigadier General Rainier Cruz said being eyed as suspects are followers of the Juaning Abdusalam Group, a known kidnap-for-ransom gang that operates in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

This, Cruz said, was the reason Army troops were sent to Tenan village in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay, where the kidnap group’s members were reportedly hiding, over the weekend. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao