Kidnappers want P20-M ransom for clerk

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The kidnappers of a 56-year-old clerk at a government-run university here are demanding a P20-million ransom, the military said.

Col. Andrelino Colina, head of the military-led Task Force Zamboanga, said the kidnappers of Alrasid Rojas, a clerk at Western Mindanao State University (WMSU), made the demand on Monday in a phone call to one of the victim’s children.

“In fact, the child of the victim managed to talk to him over the phone,” he said.

Colina would not confirm that the military was using a tracking device to locate Rojas, but he said the call was traced in “the vicinity of Luuk, Sulu.”

Rojas, who was assigned to WMSU’s Islamic Studies department, was snatched from his house on Amping Drive in Barangay Campo Islam here by about a dozen men wearing military uniforms on June 22.

He resisted the kidnapping, but the suspects beat him, Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo, city police director, said. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao