Kidnap victim released in Sulu

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Western Mindanao State University instructor Alrashid Rojas, who was abducted here on June 22, was  freed in Jolo, Sulu, at dawn Wednesday, the military said.

Colonel  Andrelino Colina, commander of Task Force Zamboanga, claimed that the victim’s family  paid ransom.

Colina said the task force was still  trying to determine how Rojas was released in Sulu.

“But we have identified some suspects in his abduction. It’s a kidnap-for-ransom group with links to Talipao town,” Colina said.

He said Rojas’ captors belonged to the same group that kidnapped Flordeliza Ongchua and Eddie Fabella on the west coast of this city last year and early this year.

On Nov. 13, 2012, armed men stormed the house of school teacher Ongchua in the village of Labuan.  She was freed more than a month later in Barangay (village) Santo Niño in Jolo.

Fabella, a businessman, was abducted in Maasin village on January 11. He was freed at the Jolo port on February 22.

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