2 DPWH employees freed

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Kidnappers released the other day two employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Sultan Kudarat who were abducted last Sept. 8, without any ransom.

DPWH engineer Wenifredo Bamboa and draftsman Edwin Morales were turned over to local negotiators led by former Palimbang mayor Samrod Mamansual, at the boundary of Barangays Kalaong and Mindopok in Maitum, Sarangani at about 2 a.m.

The two were reunited with their families at the DPWH district office here last Friday afternoon.

Sultan Kudarat district engineer Manuel Amador said the kidnappers agreed to release Bamboa and Morales after local construction workers received P450,000 in unpaid wages.

He said the laborers were hired by one of the DPWH’s contractors from 1996 to 1997 for the construction of school buildings in Palimbang town.

Besides the payment of the laborers’ unpaid wages, Amador said "there were no other monetary demands."

Amador said the abductors also sent a letter addressed to the DPWH demanding that a road project in Palimbang be stopped.

Bamboa told newsmen that their abductors treated and fed them well during their captivity in the hinterland of Palimbang.

He said their kidnappers, who confessed to be among the unpaid laborers, promised not to harm them because all they wanted were their wages.

"We were made as sacrifice for their cause. They used us to (bring their demands to the attention of the) concerned government officials," he said.

Col. Delfin Lorenzana, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, said the kidnappers were led by a certain Ulama Bagundon, Musa Macasasa Camsa and Commander Vic.

He said they were still determining whether the group has links with rebel groups in the area.

Bamboa and Morales were seized by 40 masked men who blocked their vehicle in Sitio Takal, Barangay Penol in Maitum, Sarangani at noon of Sept. 8.

The two were members of a DPWH team tasked to conduct a survey for the opening of the Palimbang-Kalamsig Road in Sultan Kudarat. — With Roel Pareño