2 kidnap victims rescued

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Two kidnapped teachers were rescued yesterday by government troopers in Basilan province after 13 days of captivity.

Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, chief of the Southern Command, said Leticia Calo and Maybelline Apolinario, both assigned in Cabaluay Elementary School east of this city were freed somewhere in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan.

Villanueva said the victims were abandoned by their captors led by a certain Darah Sela following pressures from the pursuing troops of the 10th Infantry Battalion.

Villanueva said the two kidnap victims looked haggard and tired. They will be ferried to the Camp Navarro General Hospital for treatment.

Villannueva added that the Army troops continue to pursue the kidnap suspects who are believed to be still hiding in Tipo-Tipo.

Meanwhile, two more men were abducted the other day in a daring attack along the Cotabato City national highway while government forces were busy searching for a kidnapped merchant and his driver in a nearby town.

The latest kidnap victims, Felix Villanueva, of Midsayap, North Cotabato, and Jerry Calungsag, were believed taken by their captors to Liguasan Marsh, a waterway straddling rebel territories in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

The abduction of the duo was puled off while policemen and soldiers were scouring the marshes at the borders of Matalam and Ming towns in North Cotabato in search of construction firm owner Genero Torqueza and his driver, Avelino Alagario. - With John Unson