ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants snatched a 28-year-old businesswoman in a village east of this city on Wednesday night, police said.
Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, city police chief, said the victim, Sabrina Ikbala Voon, a dealer of various cosmetic brands, was seized by six armed men from her residence in Barangay Mercedes.
Voon is the second kidnapping victim in just three months in this city. A public school teacher, Cathy Casipong, 23, was seized last Dec. 18.
Voon’s mother, Isabela Ikbala, told police that the armed men barged into their house and initially planned to kidnap her daughter’s six-year-old son, but they fought off the intruders who instead took her daughter.
Casimiro said the kidnappers forced Voon into a white van with license plate GPH 851.
The van was initially monitored en route to the coastal village of Taluksangay. But the kidnappers, upon seeing a police vehicle blocking the road, instead headed toward Barangay Talabaan where they eventually abandoned the van and escaped through a mangrove area.
The van was rented from a certain Ignacio Curambao, who told police that the kidnappers paid P3,000 a day for a supposed business trip.
Casimiro said the Naval Forces Western Mindanao has put up a naval blockade to prevent the kidnappers from escaping and bringing Voon elsewhere using the sea route.
Local police and military units have also alerted their counterparts in Zamboanga Sibugay, Basilan and Sulu where most kidnap victims are kept by groups linked to the Abu Sayyaf.
Casimiro said no group has owned up to Voon’s kidnapping and that they could not also ascertain if her captors belong to the same group that snatched Casipong on an island east of this city last Dec. 18.