Gunmen abduct 2 teachers in Basilan

ISABELA City, Philippines (Xinhua) - Gunmen abducted two male teachers in a remote coastal village in the southern province of Basilan on Wednesday night, police said Thursday.

The abducted teachers, identified as Frederick Banot and Cherden Masong, were employees of the Charity Children Foundation Inc. (CCFI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Basilan Island.

The heavily armed marauders swooped a staff house at the village of Tairan, Lantawan township and seized the two victims at gunpoint, said Basilan police commander Mario Dapillosa.

The suspects dragged their captives into a jungkung motorcraft, a Malaysian-styled pumpboat, and escaped toward unknown direction in the thick darkness of the night, according to Dapillosa.

Police said no group has claimed responsibility so far and there has been no contact from the abductors.

But the authorities here believed the group behind the abduction could be members of the organized Kidnap-for-ransom- group of the Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group tagged in the spate of terror attacks in southern Philippines and across in the country.