CAMP S.K.PENDATUN, Maguindanao --- Barangay officials and policemen rescued Friday in Omar town in Sulu two construction workers kidnapped last September 23 in Simunul, an island municipality in Tawi-Tawi.
The victims, Itih Patusa, 59, and Lindo Estrada, 50, both residents of Zamboanga City, were abandoned by their captors in Barangay Sucuban in Omar municipality when they noticed the approaching armed barangay officials and policemen, backed by military combatants, approaching their hideout.
Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, regional police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the kidnappers are now being pursued by operatives of the Sulu provincial police office.
Delos Reyes said the abductors of Patusa and Estrada apparently fled to different directions leaving the two captives behind when they sensed that policemen and soldiers, led by barangay leaders and local officials, were closing in.
Delos Reyes said Omar Mayor Ferhana Mohammad and Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan II provided support, including volunteer guides, in locating the whereabouts of the two construction workers after they were spotted in Barangay Sucuban.
“It was a good example of strong, cohesive cooperation among the mayor and the governor, the police and the military, which eventually bore fruit,†Delos Reyes told reporters.
Delos Reyes said Estrada and Patusa had both expressed gratitude to Ferhana and Tan for helping in their rescue.
“We were forced into a boat after we were abducted and we sailed away from Simunul for almost two days. We do not know where we were brought then held in one place to another under heavy guard for so many days,†Estrada said in Filipino.
Tan, who was elected Sulu governor in May, said he will help facilitate the return of Estrada and Patusa to their families in Zamboanga City.