MILF vows to help locate kidnapped businessman

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has pledged to help authorities locate a kidnapped Filipino-Chinese trader whose captors have reportedly asked for a P2.5-million ransom in exchange for his release.

The MILF, on its website www.luwaran.net, said its guerrilla forces are now trying to locate the kidnappers holding businessman Adin Yu captive.

Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane, Cotabato City police chief, earlier told reporters that Yu, 53, could have been brought by his captors to a marshy area somewhere at the boundary of Maguindanao’s Kabuntalan and Talitay towns.

Seven armed men snatched Yu last Jan. 8 while he was about to board his car in the parking lot of a casino near the 32-hectare regional government center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In the third quarter last year, two other Filipino-Chinese merchants, Nelson Tay and Conchita Tan, were seized but were later freed after their families reportedly paid hefty ransoms.