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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels abducted Thursday three
members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in
the island of Sulu, officials said.
The three—Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian
Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Jean Lacaba—were seized near Patikul
town, said Gov. Sakur Tan of Sulu. “I have ordered police and
military forces to pursue the abductors. There will be no let-up in
this operation,” he said.
Tan, chairman of the local crisis management
committee, said provincial guards and security forces have recovered
the Red Cross vehicle in Patikul. “We will not stop until we get
the Red Cross members back safely,” said Tan, who is supervising
the rescue operation in Patikul town.
Marine Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, chief of the
Western Mindanao Command, said the Red Cross team was inspecting
humanitarian works in Sulu when they were seized on the road. “It
must have been a chance opportunity for the abductors,” he said.
The military said it earlier tried to stop the
ICRC workers from going unescorted to Patikul, but they insisted.
“They were duly advised about the security situation in the
island, but being a neutral organization, the team denied [military]
armed escorts,” said Lt. Stefanni Cacho, a regional army
spokeswoman.
Cacho said there is a probability the Abu Sayyaf
was behind the abduction.
Tan had previously ordered the police and
military to escort foreigners and journalists working in Sulu
because of threats of kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf rebels after they
snatched a broadcast journalist Ces Drilon and her cameramen Jimmy
Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, including their guide Prof.
Octavio Dinampo on June 8 last year.
The four were freed weeks later after private
negotiators allegedly paid P20 million in ransom.
Abu Sayyaf militants are still holding a
kidnapped a Chinese trader, Xili Wu alias Peter Go, in Sulu since
last month. Four militants seized the 28-year-old Wu, from Fujian
province, as he was closing his electronics store in Jolo town on
December 13.
Police said Wu, along with five other Chinese
men, arrived in Jolo in December 2007 and since then operated the
Perlas Trading by using fake Filipino identities.
Authorities tagged the Abu Sayyaf group as
behind the spate of kidnappings and bomb attacks across Mindanao.
The Abu Sayyaf, which means “The Bearer of the Sword,” has been
labeled a terrorist organization by both Manila and Washington, and
is believed by the US to have links with the al-Qaeda terror
network.
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