Zambo Sibugay teachers get kidnap threats

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  – Public school officials and teachers in Zamboanga Sibugay province have requested for security after receiving kidnapping threats.

Amelia Torralba, assistant school division superintendent for Zamboanga Sibugay, disclosed the threats during the turnover of a school building provided by the Spanish aid agency Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo (AECID) early this week in Tungawan town.

The AECID, through the Philippine Business for Social Progress, also donated books and school equipment.

Torralba said some teachers and school district officials in Zamboanga Sibugay reported to her office that they have received text messages on the threats.

“Please help our teachers, they need you. A district supervisor and teachers came to visit me and informed me about the threats they have received,” Torralba said.

In March 2009, suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front seized three public school teachers and freed them after more than five months after ransom was paid.

Police and military forces are still hunting down the kidnappers of a nine-year-old boy and a businesswoman recently seized in Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga City, respectively.

The boy, son of a barangay chairwoman in Titay, Zamboanga Sibugay, was snatched from his school last March 9.

Businesswoman Olivia Angeles Barredo, 37, who operates a pharmacy and hardware and convenient stores, was snatched last March 4 in Barangay Labuan in this city’s western coast.

Citing intelligence reports, the military has tagged MILF rebels in recent kidnappings.