Abu Sayyaf abducts 5 power co-op workers

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Abu Sayyaf men tagged in last year’s kidnapping of Italian priest Fr. Giancarlo Bossi snatched five service crewmen of an electric cooperative in Tuburan, Basilan the other day, authorities said.

This, as Marine intelligence agents captured an Abu Sayyaf member with a P150,000 bounty on his head near the airport in Jolo, capital town of Sulu, also the other day, the military said.

Alfredo Oyao, manager of the Basilan Electric Cooperative (Baselco), confirmed the abduction of their five employees but refused to identify them for security reasons.

Oyao said the five Baselco crewmen were conducting meter reading when they were seized at gunpoint in Sitio Bato Babat in Barangay Sinulutan, Tuburan town.

Tuburan Mayor Dorie Kalajal identified the kidnappers as Nanan Mutahayin, his brother Muhmin, and Sakid Abduhari, supported by the followers of Abu Sayyaf leaders Nurhasan Jamiri and Usi Hassin.

Kalajal said the extremist group was the one which abducted Bossi in Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay on June 10 last year. Bossi was freed after 41 days in captivity.

Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, chief of Task Force Comet, advised mediamen not to deal with the abductors to avoid being kidnapped themselves.

Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, Basilan police director, said his men are now tracking down the kidnappers believed to be keeping their captives in the mountains of Barangay Mangalot in Akbar town.

As of press time, there had been no ransom demands from the kidnappers.

Meanwhile, Maj. Eugene Batara Jr., spokesman of Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said Abu Sayyaf member Jul Akram Hadjali, alias Dodong, was believed to be staking out at the Jolo airport when intelligence operatives of the 3rd Marine Brigade arrested him.

Batara could not say if Hadjali was among those who kidnapped ABS-CBN news anchor Ces Drilon and her crew and Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo in Maimbung, Sulu last June 8.

Batara said Hadjali remains under tactical interrogation to determine his purpose at the Jolo airport and his possible links with the kidnappers of Drilon’s group.

Sabban said they have beefed up intelligence activities to track down Abu Sayyaf members hiding in civilian communities.