Jolo trader abducted

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Extremist Abu Sayyaf rebels struck again, abducting yesterday a businessman in Jolo, Sulu, even as they still hold captive another trader they snatched last November, the military said.

Maj. Salih Indanan, spokesman of the Armed Forces' Southern Command, identified the victim as Edwin Induso, 34, son of a storeowner in Jolo.

This developed as armed burglars snatched one Edwin Gumaway as they fled after breaking into the house of his American friend in Misamis Occidental last Monday.

The military said the robbers seized Gumaway when neighbors intervened. His fate is still unknown.

Indanan said Induso was on his way to open their store when three suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels blocked his vehicle along Arolas street in downtown Jolo.

"The suspects forcibly dragged the trader out of the vehicle at gunpoint and transferred him to a getaway vehicle and sped off," Indanan said.

The military believe that Induso has been brought to Patikul town.

Marine soldiers and elements of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) were deployed to pursue Induso's abductors and rescue him.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Jilhani Nani, the PAOCTF's Mindanao Area II commander, said they are exhausting all efforts to rescue businessman Robustiano Hablo Jr. who was abducted last Nov. 20 in Jolo town.

The kidnappers of Hablo, 34, son of a storeowner, have demanded a P1.5-million ransom in exchange for his release.

Nani said Hablo is being kept by his captors, also suspected to be Abu Sayyaf rebels, in Patikul, a known lair of the extremist rebels.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for bombings, killings, extortions and kidnappings-for-ransom in the South.

The group claims to be fighting for a separate Islamic state, but the government has refused to acknowledge it as a legitimate revolutionary movement, considering it a criminal gang.

Another businessman, Ralph Fonda, owner of a gasoline station in Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur, is also being held by his abductors in Western Mindanao.

Fonda, 54, was kidnapped by suspected new recruits of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last Nov. 17, and brought to Tungawan, Zamboanga del Sur.

According to intelligence reports, Fonda is being held captive by the group of Asimuddin Akidin, alias Commander Kiddie, who heads the MILF's Special Operation Group in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan. - With wire reports