Military, MILF work out release of seized engineer

COTABATO CITY — Representatives of the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are now jointly working out the safe release of an engineer-trader snatched last Monday by the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang in Libungan, North Cotabato.

Lawyer Abdul Dataya, chief of the MILF’s Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), and his government counterpart, Marine Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino, both confirmed yesterday that they have sent emissaries to validate reports that engineer Bravick Araral, owner of a 16-hectare rice farm in Libungan, is being kept in the Liguasan Marsh.

According to the MILF news website, www.luwaran.com, their members scattered in the Liguasan Marsh have been directed to help the police and the military track down Araral and his captors.

Araral, 69, was talking to his workers at his farm in Barangay Sinawingan, a farming community in Libungan, when five gunmen, armed with caliber .45 handguns, seized and dragged him to his pick-up truck and fled.

Araral’s pick-up truck was later found abandoned in Kalanganan district here, not far away from the Liguasan Marsh.

Senior Inspector Samsom Obatay, chief of the city’s police Precinct 4, which has jurisdiction over Kalanganan, said villagers saw four men, including Araral, alighting from the pick-up truck after it pulled over near the banks of the Rio Grande de Mindanao.

Two of the kidnappers, armed with pistols, dragged Araral into a waiting pumpboat that later sailed upstream toward the first district of Maguindanao, one of the known gateways to the Liguasan Marsh.

The Liguasan Marsh is a 220,000-hectare delta at the boundary of Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, said their chairman, Al-Haj Murad, has mobilized their forces in the Liguasan Marsh to go after Araral’s abductors.

Col. Franklin del Prado, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said their units in Libungan and surrounding towns are working closely with informants from the MILF and the Muslim religious community in North Cotabato to plan out Araral’s rescue.

Araral’s relatives said they have not received any ransom demand yet from the kidnappers.

"The kidnappers can still be on the run because of the ongoing pursuit operations against them by the police and the military," Del Prado said.

Araral’s wife, Linda, said she is worried that her husband’s hypertension and arthritis could worsen during captivity.

Araral has been taking medicines regularly for his ailments.