Search on for abducted Zambo trader

ZAMBOANGA – Combined police and military forces have sealed off an island where a businessman snatched from this southern port city late Tuesday was believed being kept by his captors.

Col. Darwin Guerra, chief of anti-terror Task Force Zamboanga, said Marine forces in nearby Basilan were also alerted on the abduction of Inocente Bautista, owner of Western Mindanao Corp., a distributor of Datu Puti products.

Authorities suspect that Bautista’s abductors were keeping him on Sacol Island, which terrorists and smugglers have used as jump-off point in the past.

“We believe the kidnappers and their victims are still hiding in the area,” Guerra said.

He said troops have sealed the island and a nearby mangrove area since at least three armed men snatched Bautista from his company’s warehouse on Cabato Road in Barangay Tetuan here and used his Toyota Corolla to get away. The vehicle was later recovered in the coastal village of Mulu-muluan.

The Naval Forces Western Mindanao has also lent a hand, putting up a naval blockade to prevent the kidnappers from slipping out of the island.

However, Guerra said they are not discounting the possibility that Bautista’s captors might have brought him to Basilan where one of them hails from.

Zamboanga City police chief Lurimer Detran said pursuing lawmen found a pumpboat believed used by the kidnappers in the mangrove area.

Detran said Bautista’s family has reportedly not received any demands from the kidnappers. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Nikki Angulo and Ana Mae Roa