Cops ready to conduct rescue operation for 2 NGO workers

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Police are ready to conduct a rescue mission for two ailing female community workers still being held captive by suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels in the jungles of Basilan as soon as the provincial crisis management committee gives the go-signal, the police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said.

This, as Basilan Vice Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakalahul, who heads the crisis management committee, said they would stick to the government’s no-ransom policy after the kidnappers demanded P5-million ransom for one of the two hostages.

Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, newly installed ARMM police director, said he favors a rescue operation for community workers Esperancita Hupida and Millet Mendoza to curb kidnappings in the province.

Jabarani, who hails from Basilan, said he is confident that the rescue operation would succeed.

He directed police intelligence agents to keep track of the movement of the kidnappers and their hostages.

The kidnappers relayed their ransom demand for Hupida, program coordinator of the Nagdilaab Foundation Inc., after a contact was established with them last Tuesday night.

Hupida herself told Sakalahul that she was really sick and needed to be hospitalized.

Sakalahul, however, said the crisis committee is firm on its decision not to heed the ransom demand to discourage kidnappings.

But he gave assurance that they are working on other means to convince the kidnappers to free the two community workers.

“We have to find a win-win solution that the kidnappers would allow their captives to be released safely,” Sakalahul said.

The kidnapping was the third in Basilan this year.