ZAMBOANGA CITY—At least five kidnapping suspects were killed in a town in Sulu province during a gunfight with the husband and son of a businesswoman they had seized and a military operation that led to the victim’s recovery yesterday.
The target of the kidnapping attempt in the town of Siasi, Guan Kim Maujon, 48, a Sulu businesswoman, had been injured but saved from the suspects, who are believed to be members of the crime group Abu Sayyaf.
Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), said at least five Abu Sayyaf members are dead.
Maujon was with her husband, Arab, and son, Abet, when the suspects attacked around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the village of Tampakan Laminusa in Siasi town.
Senior Insp. Annidul Sali, the police chief of Siasi, said Arab fought it out with the suspects and shot one of them. Abet, the son, was wounded in the gunfight, he said.
Armed neighbors
Neighbors of the Maujons, who were armed, traded fire with the suspects for at least 10 minutes, killing one of them and taking an Armalite rifle, said Sali.
The suspects, however, were able to flee with Maujon.
According to Guerrero, four suspects were killed in a police and military operation to recover Maujon that followed the gunfight in Siasi.
Col. Allan Arrojado, head of the anticrime composite team Joint Task Group Sulu, said Maujon was found by fishermen in the waters between the towns of Parang and Tapul around 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
Arrojado said Maujon suffered two gunshots wounds—one each in the breast and ankle—and is being treated now.
In Iligan City, two of four teenagers kidnapped by still unidentified men on May 4 had been freed after their families paid ransom, according to sources.
Senior Supt. Orlando Benas, Iligan City police chief, said Rafael Lat and his girlfriend, Elle Marie Francis Deleste, both 18, were abandoned by their kidnappers in the village of Sta. Elena in Iligan around 3:25 a.m.
Ransom payments
Benas said the Deleste family paid P100,000 in ransom. Another source said the Lat family also paid ransom although the amount was unknown.
Benas said police tried to talk with the families of the victims but they refused.
Lat and Deleste were seized on May 4 with their friends Ehfrus Fernandez and Ken Garciano, who are believed to be still in captivity.
Sources from the police Anti- Kidnapping Group said the two—Fernandez and Garciano—are likely to be in captivity in the boundaries of Tagoloan, Pantar and Kapai towns in Lanao del Sur.
On Sunday, Abu Sayyaf members also kidnapped a finance officer of a mining company in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.
Tawi-Tawi Rep. Ruby Sahali confirmed to the Inquirer the kidnapping of Priscillano Garcia, a resident of Bayambang, Pangasinan. Garcia works as a finance officer of Tumbagaan Languyan Mining Co., which is owned by the lawmaker’s family.
No contact
Sahali said Garcia just had dinner at the Beachside Inn Hotel and Restaurant in the village of Sowang Kagang and was heading home when four men took him at gunpoint.
Sahali said no contact has been made with the kidnappers.
The Abu Sayyaf, which continues to sow terror despite escalating military operations, is still keeping several hostages.
Among these are Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay Mayor Gemma Adana, bird watcher and Dutch national Ewold Horn, 73-year- old Korean Hong Nwi-seong and Chinese national Yahong Lim Tan.
Horn had been kidnapped in Tawi-Tawi in 2012, Seong was taken in RT Lim town in Zamboanga Sibugay on Jan. 24 and Tan was kidnapped with her mother in Isabela City on May 22, 2014. Tan’s mother had been freed. Julie Alipala and Richel Umel, Inquirer Mindanao