Abduction condemned

COTABATO CITY — Hundreds of medical practitioners, including nursing students, staged separate rallies in different parts of Central Mindanao yesterday to condemn Tuesday’s abduction of a female Cotabato physician and hospital owner by the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang.

Political leaders in the region also took turns in calling on President Arroyo to focus attention on the plight of Dr. Rosemarie Agustin, who was snatched at a residential district here Tuesday night.

In Kidapawan City, doctors, nurses and sectoral leaders also staged a day-long fasting, apart from holding a rally at the city proper, to dramatize their sympathy for Agustin, one of the owners of the Cotabato Medical Specialist Hospital here. — John Unson