1 of 4 new Abu captives escapes

AP FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Police on Saturday said one of the four social workers reported to have been abducted by Abu Sayyaf gunmen on Thursday in Talipao, Sulu, had escaped.

Chief Supt. Noel de los Reyes, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) chief of police, said Lerma Jura managed to escape after she and three colleagues were abducted by about 10 men in Barangay Sinumaan (not Sinupaan as reported earlier) on Thursday afternoon.

“She walked for about a kilometer and sought help from village officials who turned her over to the Marines,” De los Reyes said.

On Friday, ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman identified three of the social workers as Lerna Natsura, Roberto Sabutano and Nurhani Sikangko. The fourth victim was still unidentified, Hataman said.

De los Reyes on Saturday said that Natsura was Lerma Jura.

The victims were employees of the ARMM’s Department of Social Welfare and Development and were in Talipao conducting a survey for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) when they were seized by armed men.

“Our report was that they were taken by Abu Sayyaf while doing their work,” Hataman told reporters here on Friday.

The social workers were the latest in the growing number of captives being held by the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

Authorities earlier said that German nationals Dr. Stefan Viktor Okonek, 74, and Henrite Dielen, 42, had been brought to Sulu after they were taken at gunpoint from a yacht between Sabah and Palawan last April.

The Abu Sayyaf also continues to hold captive a number of foreigners, including European birdwatchers Dutchman Ewold Horn and Swiss national Lorenzo Vinciguerra, and Japanese treasure hunter Mamaito Katayama. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao

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