Kidnappers demand P30M for release of Korean, Pinoy

COTABATO CITY — The kidnappers are asking for P30-million ransom for the release of a Filipino hotel owner and a Korean national who are being held captive in Palembang, Sultan Kudarat.

Highly placed sources, among them a member of the religious community in Sultan Kudarat, said the kidnappers, some of whom are believed to be active members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have dispatched four "couriers" fluent in the Cebuano dialect to General Santos City to negotiate for the ransom.

The victims, Carlos Belonio, owner of the Tierra Verde Hotel in General Santos City, and his Korean friend, treasure-hunter Yoon Jae-kwon, were snatched last week by heavily armed men in barangay Malisbong in Palembang, a predominantly Muslim coastal town.

The two, along with six workers, were surveying sites in Palembang where retreating Japanese soldiers allegedly buried treasures at the end of World War II. The six workers were later released.

The police and military, however, cannot confirm if the kidnappers have already demanded a P30 million ransom for the duo.

Superintendent Abubakar Mangelen, police director of Sultan Kudarat, said what he has now is a letter, purportedly sent by the kidnappers, who identified themselves as members of the so-called "Abu Sufia group," which is not known to the police authorities.

The letter confirmed that Belonio and the foreigner were indeed abducted for ransom and are now in their hands. But there was no mention of any ransom money.

"We are exhausting all means to verify the authenticity of the letter and its source. We cannot jump into conclusions," Mangelen told Catholic station dxMS, the city’s pioneer broadcast outfit.

The police and military are also investigating deeper into reports linking two prominent MILF commanders in the abduction of Belonio and Yoon.

The MILF’s central committee, however, has denied any involvement of its forces in the kidnapping. "The MILF has always been the whipping boy every time there are kidnappings in Mindanao," said the front’s spokesman, Eid Kabalu.

Last Sunday, pursuing soldiers, backed by the local militia and policemen, reportedly wounded five men and recovered assorted firearms following a brief clash with the kidnappers in Kulong-kulong, Palembang.

Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the armed men could have positioned themselves at Kulong-kulong, not far away from a river, to block the advance of the soldiers and policemen into the spot where the kidnappers are believed to be hiding Belonio and Yoon.

The firefight did not last long as the kidnappers scampered off to different directions after sensing that the advancing soldiers were outmaneuvering them. Villagers said they saw the gunmen carrying at least five wounded companions as they fled deeper into a nearby jungle.

Soldiers recovered from the scene a B-40 rocket launcher, three live rockets, two M16 Armalites, an M203 rifle and an M-79 shoulder-fired grenade launcher.