MILF spies to help locate Cotabato engineer

KORONADAL CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has reportedly deployed some of its "spies" to Maguindanao to help government forces recover the engineer who was abducted by the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang last week.

Sources from the MILF said the group is still awaiting information from the spies, who were tasked to locate the whereabouts of 66-year-old Engineer Bravick Araral.

The MILF has been working with military forces in flushing out lawless elements in Mindanao for the past several months. 

Araral was kidnapped by five armed men, believed to be members of the notorious Pentagon Gang, in his farm in Libungan, North Cotabato.

"We are helping to locate the kidnap victim to show to the public that we are not tolerating kidnapping activities in Mindanao," Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the MILF, said in one of the radio interviews here.

Recent reports received by The STAR said that Araral’s abductors are demanding P10 million in ransom. — Ramil Bajo