Gov’t not sleeping on 8 kidnap cases in W. Mindanao, says Robredo

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the government has not forgotten the cases of the eight remaining kidnap victims in Western Mindanao and that agencies concerned were exerting efforts to locate and rescue them.

“We are doing out best to find them. We want to correct the wrong impression that we are not doing anything about their cases,” Robredo said Thursday.

But Robredo would not give details on the efforts, adding that the safety of the victims was the government’s main concern.

Of the victims, five were foreigners:

* Richard Warren Rodwell, 53, an Australian national who was forcibly taken from his house in Barangay Pangi in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay Province on Dec. 4, 2011;

* Birdwatchers Swiss Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 47, and Dutchman Ewold Horn, 52, who were abducted on Feb. 1 in Panglima Sugala, Tawi-Tawi;

* Japanese national Toshio Ito, 63, who was abducted in Pangutaran, Sulu while on a treasure hunt on July 16, 2010; and

* Biju Kolara Veettil, 36, an Indian national kidnapped in Patikul, Sulu while visiting his Filipino in-laws on June 22, 2011.

The other victims still being held by their captors are Mayor Jeffrey Lim, 36, of Salug, Zamboanga del Norte; and Hilario delos Santos, 64, of Basilan.

Robredo said that in the case of Rodwell, the kidnappers had stopped making contact with Zamboanga Sibugay officials.

Zamboanga Sibugay Governor Rommel Jalosjos told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the kidnappers were directly talking with Rodwell”s family.

On the two European birdwatchers, Robredo said the government has close contact with their families and updates were being provided to them.

Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra, Sulu police chief, said they got information that Veettil had been executed by the Abu Sayyaf, while Ito “moves freely inside the captors’ camp but didn’t make any effort to escape”.