Kidnappers contact captives' kin in US, demand ransom

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The kidnappers of an American woman, her son and Filipino nephew have contacted their family in the United States by phone demanding ransom, officials said yesterday.

At least 14 gunmen seized Philippine-born US citizen Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, her 14-year-old son and 19-year-old nephew Romnick Jakaria Tuesday from a relative’s house they were visiting in the island village of Tictabon off this city. They were taken away at gunpoint onboard a motorboat, officials said.

Kidnappings for ransom have long been a problem in this impoverished region and are blamed mostly on the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, a group also notorious for beheadings and bombings.

US-backed offensives have weakened the group, which is blacklisted by the United States as a terrorist organization, but it remains a key security threat.

Asked about the reported ransom, Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said without elaborating that US authorities have told Philippine officials that the kidnappers called the captives’ family and demanded money.

Lobregat declined to disclose other details, including if the kidnappers identified their group or if they allowed the captives to talk to their family.

“There was a call to the family, and a demand was made,” Lobregat said.

Earlier, US-based news outfits reported online that the kidnappers had contacted Lunsmann’s husband and demanded $2-million ransom. 

Intelligence reports though said the kidnappers demanded $10-million ransom. 

But Lobregat described the reported ransom as an “unbelievable amount.”

“I cannot confirm or deny the reported amount,” he said. 

Regional police commander Felicisimo Khu Jr. said investigators were aware of the ransom demand.

Lunsmann, a 41-year-old veterinarian who lives in Virginia, was born to a Muslim family in a village not far from where she and her son were vacationing with relatives when they were snatched, Khu said.

She was adopted by an American couple as a child and grew up in the US. She has visited her home province at least five times before the kidnapping, Khu said.

Khu said authorities suspect the captives were being held in the island province of Basilan across a strait from Zamboanga City by militants under Abu Sayyaf commanders Nurhassan Jamiri and Puruji Indama, who have been blamed for past kidnappings and beheadings.

The captives could also be in nearby Zamboanga Sibugay province, where the actual kidnappers, believed to be former Muslim rebels from another group, are based.

The kidnappers reportedly turned over their captives to the Abu Sayyaf, Khu said, citing intelligence reports.

The last time Americans were held hostage in southern Philippines was in 2001, when Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a Palawan resort then took them by speedboat to Basilan.

One of the Americans, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded in Basilan. A second American hostage, Gracia Burnham, was wounded but rescued while her husband Martin was killed in an Army rescue in the Zamboanga Peninsula a year after they were abducted.

Since then, hundreds of US troops have been helping train and arm local troops battling the Abu Sayyaf. – AP, Roel Pareño