No ransom to be paid for kidnapped Fil-Ams

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration will adopt a no-ransom policy to rescue two Americans and a Filipino in Zamboanga City, following demands by kidnappers of $10 million for their immediate release, a Palace official said yesterday.

“We don’t pay ransom, let’s see how the negotiations will fare, hopefully the outcome will be good,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told Palace reporters in a briefing at Malacañang.

Around 14 gunmen kidnapped last week American Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, her 14-year-old son and a 19-year-old Filipino nephew when they visited a relative in a village near Zamboanga City.

They were taken away at gunpoint on board a motorboat, officials said.

Asked about the reported ransom, Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said without elaborating that US authorities have told Filipino officials the kidnappers called the captives’ family and demanded money.

Lobregat declined to disclose other details, including if the kidnappers identified their group or if they allowed the captives to talk to their family. “There was a call to the family, and a demand was made,” he said.

Regional police commander Felicisimo Khu Jr. said investigators were aware of the ransom demand.

Lunsmann, a 41-year-old veterinarian who lives in Virginia, was born to a Muslim family in a village not far from where she and her son were vacationing with relatives when they were snatched, Khu said.

She was adopted by an American couple as a child and grew up in the US. She has visited her home province in the country at least five times before the kidnappings took place, Khu said.

Khu said authorities suspect the captives were being held in Zamboanga Sibugay by a kidnap-for-ransom group (KFRG) with links to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Khu said reports have identified the Alawi KFRG under Waning Abdusallam as suspects in the kidnapping of the three victims.

Abdusallam is said to be one of the leaders of the MILF’s Special Operations Group (SOG) operating in the Zamboanga peninsula area.

Abdusallam’s group was also tagged in the kidnapping of Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), in June 2007. He was freed a month later.