Security top concern of teachers, students in ARMM

ZAMBOANGA CITY - - Government security forces and local government units beefed up security plans to ensure the safety of the teachers and local residents when classes resume next week amid to threats of abduction in areas known to have strong presence of the Abu Sayyaf and kidnapping syndicates, according to an official.

Teachers and local residents remain vulnerable to threats of kidnapping following the recent abduction of a school principal and the extortion of safety fees from teachers in Sumisip town, Basilan province.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman said security remains a concern in areas known to be infested by the presence of the Abu Sayyaf group and the other kidnap gangs in the region.

Security officials confirmed the Abu Sayyaf group in far flung villages in Basilan reportedly exacting monthly protection fee, ranging from P500 each from teachers to spare them from kidnapping.

Hataman said he received similar reports that teachers were told to pay protection money, "but none of the teachers acceded to the demand.”

The monthly “safety fees” were discovered following the abduction the other month of a public school principal who was subsequently freed after two weeks in captivity in Sumisip town.

Hataman said he met with Basilan Provincial Police director Mario Dapilloza to step up security measures to  thwart the threat posed by the different armed groups, including the Abu Sayyaf group.

Hataman said the police, military, and the civilian leaders will hold regular assessment sessions to ensure the implementation of the security protocol.

“Security remains a challenge because there are different actors such as the police, military and the local government units and I believe the key here are the local government units because they are at the forefront,” Hataman said.

The police and military have yet to resolve several kidnapping cases in Basilan and Sulu where about a dozen of victims, both foreigners and local residents, remainecaptives by different factions of the Abu Sayyaf group.

Among the captives held in Basilan area Chinese businesswoman Dina Lim Eraham, 45, and her daughter Yahong Lim Tan, 19, both of Isabela City where the kidnappers demanded P30-million ransom.

In Sulu, the Abu Sayyaf faction is believed to be holding captive Germans  Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71, and his female companion, Herike Diesen, 55; Chinese national Gao Hua Yuan and Malaysian-Chinese Yang Zai Lin, who were separately abducted last month in Sabah.

Gao, 29, a Shanghai native, was abducted along with Filipina resort worker Marcelita Dayawan, 40, last April 1 from a resort off Semporna while Yang, 34, and a companion identified as Konar Resowan, were taken last May 6.

The two Germans went missing late April from their yacht off Palawan and were reportedly seized and brought by the Abu Sayyaf to the Sulu province.

The German captives were believed to be united with two other European hostages – Dutchman Elwold Horn and Swiss Lorenzo Vinceguerre - both abducted since February 2012 in Tawi-Tawi and brought to Sulu, according to authorities. - Roel Pareño