MILF help sought for 2 NGO workers

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) pressed on the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to assist in securing the release this week of two female community workers kidnapped by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan, a peace advocate said yesterday.

Prof. Octavio Dinampo, co-chairman of the Mindanao Peace Weaver comprising peace advocates in the South, said they were informed of the IMT’s participation following a visit to the MILF central headquarters at Camp Darapanan in Maguindanao early this week.

Dinampo, a professor of Mindanao State University and a former kidnap victim himself of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu last June, said the IMT has given the MILF leadership four days to find a solution to the kidnapping of Esperancita Hupida and Millet Mendoza.

Dinampo said the kidnappers have given Hupida’s family until tomorrow to give in to their P2-million ransom demand or they would cut her fingers.

He quoted the kidnappers as saying that negotiations for Mendoza’s release would start after Hupida’s case is resolved.

Dinampo said the Mindanao Peace Weaver has been exerting all peaceful efforts to convince the kidnappers to free the two community workers.

“From our assessment, the ultimate thing here that the kidnappers want is all money. They are already making it (kidnapping) a cottage industry,” he said.

Dinampo said they have identified some of the kidnappers to be sons of Abu Sayyaf rebels.

He said they believe that the kidnappers’ threat is real, saying they know Hupida to be a tough person who does not easily break down.

“But when Hupida called up her husband she was crying. She would not easily break down if the threat was just a bluff to pressure her. But being a victim is already pressure because the kidnappers easily change their minds,” he said.

Hupida, program coordinator of the non-profit Nagdilaab Foundation Inc., and Mendoza were abducted last Sept. 15 after holding a coordination meeting with village leaders in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan for a possible community program.

Both are members of the Mindanao Peace Weaver.