The foiled kidnap try occurred two days after Felipe and Helen Lucañas, both instructors of the MSU-Lanao National Comprehensive School of Arts and Trades, were rescued from their captors in Piagapo, Lanao del Sur.
The Lucañases’ rescue was a rare joint assault of the Marines, policemen and Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas.
MSU elementary teacher Eugene Sumile told reporters that two armed motorcycle-riding men tried to block the path of the passenger jeepney they were riding in in the outskirts of Balo-i.
The jeepney driver, sensing that the armed men could be members of a kidnap-for-ransom group, stepped on the vehicle’s accelerator and sped off. The two men, however, gave chase.
Upon reaching Barangay Nangka in Balo-i town, the MSU group sought help from the members of the 2nd Marine Battalion manning a checkpoint there.
This prompted the Marines to pursue the two motorcycle-riding men who hastily turned back and fled.
According to Biema Ladlad, a reporter of the Radyo ng Bayan, who was among the jeepney passengers, the two motorcycle-riding men could be henchmen of a certain De Leon, a notorious criminal slain by Marines in Balo-i two months ago.