'Issue a fatwah against kidnappers'

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The city government has asked the Islamic religious community to issue a first-ever fatwah (edict) condemning kidnappers and urging the public to help authorities stop their “un-Islamic” activities.

Kidnappers reportedly led by a certain Datu Pened and another datu named Tunggal have still been holding captive somewhere at the tri-boundary of North Cotabato’s Libungan and Midsayap towns, and Northern Kabuntalan, Ma­guindanao a 73-year-old businesswoman who was snatched here last Friday by men clad in Army uniforms and armed with assault rifles.

“This is now time for our religious leaders to issue a fatwah against these kidnappers and call on all sectors to help stop their activities which is unduly giving Mindanao’s Muslim communities a very bad image,” said Cotabato City Vice Mayor Japal Guiani Jr.

Local officials, who asked not to be identified, said the businesswoman was seized by followers of the late Abugado Bago, alias Commander Mubarak, and Mayangkang Saguile, who was implicated in more than 30 kidnappings here and in surrounding towns in recent years.

Bago, a former follower of Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front, founded the Mubarak kidnapping syndicate that was tagged in the kidnapping of more than 50 Filipino-Chinese traders in Central Mindanao from 1989 to 1992.

Marines killed Bago in Pantukan, Davao del Norte in 1992.