1 of 3 kidnapped Koreans released

ILIGAN CITY—One of three South Koreans kidnapped while checking mining prospects in Lanao del Norte has been released on Thursday, authorities said yesterday.

Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation (Dipo) in Western Mindanao, said Choi In-soo was abandoned by his kidnappers in Barangay Kalimudan in Salvador, Lanao del Norte, around 9:30 p.m.

Khu said the kidnappers were forced to release Choi because of pressure from a military and police pursuit operation.

Maj. Gen. Noel Coballes, commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, supported Khu’s version of the Korean’s release.

Coballes said Choi was freed in the hinterlands of Lanao del Norte “due to pressure from law enforcement and NGO leaders in the area.”

“He is OK,” Khu said.

But a Lanao del Norte official said Choi was very weak because the kidnappers had not been feeding him and their other captives.

The fate of his companions—Wu Seok-bung and Kim Nam-du—remained uncertain, Khu said. He, however, said authorities hoped to recover them, too.

Khu said police and soldiers were sent to the boundaries of Salvador and Madamba in Lanao del Sur to track down the kidnap group which, according to the military, is headed by an alias “Pogi.”

Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesperson of Western Mindanao Command, said Choi was “apparently ill and very weak.”

Lyndon Calica, Lanao del Norte information officer, said Choi was brought to the hospital because he was so frail.

“He would be undergoing an operation due to ulcer and taking medication for his other ailments,” he said.

Calica said based on information they got from the freed South Korean, the kidnappers had starved their captives.

“Choi suffered intense hunger since the kidnappers only gave them water. No solid food was given to them while in captivity,” he said.

Choi and his companions traveled to Lanao del Norte on Oct. 21 after a local contact reportedly told them about an area there that could be a good site for mining.

Days after they failed to return to their hotel in Cagayan de Oro City, authorities said they got information that the foreigners had been kidnapped.

Col. Aldred Limoso, the local Army commander based here, said the Filipino girlfriend of one of the victims was able to speak to one of the alleged kidnappers.

Limoso said during the conversation, the girlfriend was told the South Koreans would only be released in exchange for P50 million in ransom.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it was also helping locate the remaining South Korean captives.

In past kidnappings in the Lanao provinces, the MILF has played a major role in the release of the victims.

Coballes visited the 53-year-old Choi at the Lanao del Norte provincial hospital. Coballes quoted the Korean as saying they weren’t fed by their captors for the last 34 days.

That was the reason for Choi’s ulcer and the need for him to be operated on, said Coballes.

Coballes also quoted Choi as saying three Filipinos were kidnapped with the Koreans in the village of Matampay in Salvador town on Oct. 21.

Choi was quoted as saying he was with the Filipino captives until his release.

Brig. Gen. Rolando Amarelli, chief of a task force formed to find the Koreans, said task force members believe that Kim, 48, and Wu, 60, were still with the group that also holds Nestor Mondejar of Barubo, Surigao del Sur, and a still unidentified engineer from Parang, Maguindanao.

Another victim, Junie Ongie of El Salvador, Misamis Oriental, had reportedly been executed earlier by the kidnappers although Amarelli said the report was still being independently verified.

Special Investigator Froilan Grageda, of the National Bureau of Investigation here, said the suspects in the kidnapping of the South Koreans and their Filipino partners had been identified and charges were being prepared against them.

“We cannot disclose their identities in the meantime to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing joint operations,” Grageda said.

Lanao del Norte Gov. Mohammad Khalid Dimaporo said the provincial government would not negotiate with the kidnappers.

“We maintain the no-ransom policy in the province,” Dimaporo said. Richel Umel and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, and Agence France-Presse