British national escapes from Tawi-Tawi abductors

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A Briton escaped yesterday from his kidnappers almost 12 hours after he was seized from the coastal town of Sangga-Sangga in Tawi-Tawi.

Percival Timothy Showers, 47, an oceanographer at the Mindanao State University, was dragged into a jeep by unidentified gunmen who had barged into his living quarters inside the university campus on Sunday night.

But some hours later, Showers, who has been in the Philippines since 1990, put up a fight and escaped by hiding in a swampy area until dawn yesterday when he was found by Marine troopers.

Col. Frank Gudani, Southern Command deputy chief for operations, told reporters yesterday Showers, who will soon be flown to Zamboanga City, is in the protective custody of the 9th Marine Battalion Landing Team under the command of Col. Glicerio Baking.

"The professor revealed in the interrogation that before reaching a bridge, he jumped out from the Ford Fiera van, then using the darkness he was able to hide himself from the perpetrators," he said.

Hadja Kashiran Sarahadil, a fellow teacher of Showers, told investigators the gunmen, who spoke Tausug, were about 5’7" tall, between the ages of 25 and 30, and sported a "flat top" haircut.

"I asked them why they are taking Timothy, but they did not answer," she said. "One of them later said Timothy had to come with them."

Sarahadil said she and other teachers tried to stop the gunmen from taking Showers but that the kidnappers threatened to shoot them if they interfered.

Gudani said police and military investigators have not yet determined the motive behind the kidnapping of Showers but they suspect that it had something to with the Briton’s opposition to the exploitation of marine resources in Tawi-Tawi.

"We will make our action based on the logical deduction of possible motives," he said. "We don’t know yet if they were Abu Sayyaf or some other group whom the victim had begrudged. So it is premature to conclude who perpetrated the abduction."

Authorities have no word yet as to the identity of the kidnappers but they were suspected to be members of the Abu Sayyaf, a bandit group that has been holding American missionary couple and 16 Filipinos hostage for months now in Basilan island, 280 kms. northeast of Tawi-Tawi. – Roel Pareño, Christina Mendez