Search on for kidnapped health worker, 2 teachers

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Efforts were ongoing to track down a female health worker seized by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits in Patikul, Sulu and two male public school teachers kidnapped by armed men in Iligan City last Monday, authorities said yesterday.

Police said six health workers were snatched in Patikul Monday afternoon, but five of them were subsequently released.

Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra, Sulu police director, said the search is focused on mobile health worker Roselyn Kiram, 54, who remains in captivity.

Freyra said the health workers were onboard their service clinic on their way to Jolo, the capital town of Sulu, when armed men flagged them down at around 3:15 p.m. Monday in Barangay Liang, Patikul town. 

The six health workers, Freyra said, were dragged out of their vehicle and brought to an undisclosed area where five of them were eventually freed.

However, the armed men kept Kiram and escaped toward Barangay Tugas, a known haven of the Abu Sayyaf, Freyra said. 

He said combined forces of the provincial and Patikul police and the Marine Battalion Landing Team 6 have launched a pursuit operation for Kiram’s kidnappers.

Director Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation in Western Mindanao, cited intelligence reports that the Abu Sayyaf group led by Minok Sappari was behind the kidnapping. 

The Abu Sayyaf also seized a health worker in Indanan, Sulu last year and freed the victim months later after ransom was paid.

The Philippine Red Cross, in a statement, clarified that Kiram is not one of its volunteers, but a midwife of the Department of Health’s Rural Health Unit. The vehicle that she and the other health workers were riding though bore a Red Cross logo.

Meanwhile, in Iligan City, government troops have launched a similar search and rescue operation for two male public school teachers who were seized on Monday afternoon.

Col. Daniel Lucero, commanding officer of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, said the two victims, Rene Somadang and Tino Sanchez, both teaching at the Limonsudan Elementary School, were on a convoy of three motorcycles when they were fired at around 2:40 p.m. Monday.

Those aboard two of the motorcycles were able to elude the armed men, but Somadang and Sanchez, who were riding tandem on the third motorcycle, failed.

Lucero said authorities believe the two teachers have been kidnapped “as their whereabouts have remained uncertain since they were taken Monday.”

He said Task Force Makalintad, covering Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte and Iligan City, has deployed its forces to track down the kidnappers and possibly rescue the two teachers. – With Lino de la Cruz, Jaime Laude