Suspected Abu Sayyaf man nabbed in Zamboanga City for teachers’ kidnapping

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – A suspected Abu Sayyaf bandit involved in the 2009 kidnapping of three teachers from Sacol Island had been captured by government security forces and law enforcers in Barangay (village) Talabaan here during a raid around 3 a.m. Thursday.

Colonel Andrelino Colina, commander of the Task Force Zamboanga, said Jun Jalal Akilan, alias Temeng, was being linked to the kidnapping of Landang Gua teachers Quizon Freires, Rafael Mayonado and Janette delos Reyes in January 2009.

He said Akilan, who yielded a pistol when collared, was among those charged in a local court here for the kidnapping of the teachers and was even considered the No. 11th on the list of most wanted persons in Western Mindanao.

“Akilan was positively identified as among the suspects in the kidnapping,” Colina added.

The three teachers were returning home to mainland Zamboanga from their assigned school on Sacol Island when armed men on another motorboat blocked their vessel and forcibly took them.

They were eventually released after nearly five months in captivity.

The Abu Sayyaf, which is in the list of Washington’s terror groups, continues to victimize teachers.

On Dec. 18, Cathy Mae Casipong, who teaches at the Sibuctoc Elementary School in Barangay Limaong here was abducted, according to Benjo Basas, national chair of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition.

“She remains in the hands of her kidnappers,” he said.

Other Abu Sayyaf teacher-victims included Noemi Mandi, Jocelyn Inion and Jocelyn Enriquez, who were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits from Zamboanga Sibugay in March 2009; and Gabriel Canizares, principal of Kanague Elementary School in Sulu October 2009.

Canizares was executed by his captors in November of that year. With a report from Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao