Kidnapped grains trader released

Members of the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) line up inside their camp in Datu Saudi, Maguindanao. INQUIRER file photo

COTABATO CITY—A businessman engaged in the trading of grains was released unharmed on a roadside in Maguindanao province on Tuesday, 35 days after he was abducted from his store in the town of Ampatuan, the military said.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said Kenneth Cabrera, 27, had been taken by his captors to various places in Maguindanao following his abduction last May 13 in Kauran village in Ampatuan.

Hermoso could not say if Cabrera’s family had paid any ransom in exchange for his liberty.

Cabrera was abandoned by his captors on a roadside in Datu Odin Sinsuat, also in Maguindanao, at 6 a.m. Tuesday, he said.

Hermoso said Mayor Rasul Sangki of Ampatuan town had received a phone call informing him that Cabrera had been freed and was waiting for his relatives near the Mindanao State University campus.

Sangki and the military quickly proceeded to the area and brought Cabrera to a hospital for a medical check-up.

Police earlier blamed the radical Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters for the kidnapping, but Abu Misry, BIFF spokesperson, denied they had any hand in the abduction.

The BIFF is a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which is talking peace with the government.