7 quarry workers freed

Suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels released yesterday seven quarry workers they snatched in Basilan last Dec. 2 apparently because their employer had committed an offense against the guerrillas, the military said.

Lt. Stephanie Cacho, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command, said in a phone interview that quarry workers Raffy Casires, Joebert Natividad, Alfred Layam, Tomas de Leon Jr., Albert Manolis, Fernando Rodel and Wagnerson Toledo were freed in Tuburan, Basilan late Monday night.

“They looked healthy when I saw them. They were immediately given a medical check-up after their release,” she said.

Cacho, however, could not say if the laborers were taken to an MILF camp after they were seized.

“Their abductors told the workers that their boss had an offense against the MILF and they wanted to make a statement by taking them,” she said without elaborating.

Commodore Alexander Pama, chief of Naval Forces Western Mindanao, said the quarry workers were released through the efforts of Lamitan, Basilan Mayor Rhoderick Furugay.

While no ransom was paid, Pama said a “board and lodging fee” was given to the kidnappers.

“It appears they were not physically harmed. They looked alright,” he said.

The seven workers were brought to the camp of the 1st Marine Brigade in Lamitan town for debriefing before they were reunited with their families.

Meanwhile, Pama said last Sunday’s clashes in Barangay Kaili in Albarkah, Basilan have affected the capability of rogue MILF rebels to stage attacks and other activities such as kidnappings.

The clashes left five Marines and about 50 Abu Sayyaf and MILF rebels killed and 25 others, including an Air Force bomber plane pilot, wounded.

“We are looking at the whole picture. The mere fact that the encounter site is a strategic area for them, we could say that we have somehow affected their capability,” he said.

The military has stepped up its operations against the rebels in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, following orders from President Arroyo for government troops to run after the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the recent spate of kidnappings.

The Abu Sayyaf is believed to be coddling members of the Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based terror group with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda international terror network.