Kidnapped Sino earning only P10,000 a month!

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Kidnap victim Edwin Lim, who is still in the hands of his captors, along with Zhang Zhung Yi, is not a wealthy trader but an ordinary interpreter for workers of the Chinese construction firm involved in an irrigation project in Carmen, North Cotabato.

The victim’s wife, Vina, for the first time since her husband’s abduction in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao two weeks ago, appealed yesterday to the kidnap gang to release him without ransom.

"Contrary to TV and newspaper reports, we are not wealthy. Edwin is just working as an interpreter for Zhang Zhung Quiang with a monthly pay of P10,000," Vina said in between sobs.

Zhang Zhung Quiang, operations manager of the China Import-Export Technologies, Inc., was shot dead by members of the same gang holding Lim captive during a chance encounter with pursuing soldiers in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat last week.

Also killed by the kidnappers was Zhang’s compatriot Xue Xing.

One of the captives, Wang Sheng-li, was rescued by soldiers after the kidnappers fled, sensing that they had been surrounded and that five of their cohorts had been killed in the ensuing skirmishes.

Zhang Zhung Quiang was abducted last June in North Cotabato. His younger brother, Zhang Zhung Yi, Lim, Xue Xing and Wang Sheng-li, were kidnapped by the same group early this month while about to pay a P5-million ransom for his release during a pay-off in Datu Paglas, a remote town in the second district of Maguindanao.

"I hope the kidnappers will pity my three children. I hope they will release Edwin without any ransom," Vina said.

She said the kidnappers could have mistaken her husband for either one of his two namesakes in Davao City who both own big business establishments.

Meanwhile, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division dispatched yesterday more soldiers to run after the group of Tahir Alonto, which is holding the two remaining captives, at the border of Datu Paglas and Tulunan, North Cotabato.

Major Julieto Ando, 6th ID’s spokesman, said their commander, Gen. Roy Kyamko, has also enlisted the help of local religious leaders in locating the whereabouts of the kidnappers and their two captives. — John Unson