No word yet from Zambo kidnappers

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Authorities yesterday said they have received no word from the kidnappers of a naturalized American woman, her teenage son and their Filipino nephew.

More than a dozen gunmen seized Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 42, her 14-year-old son Kevin Eric and 19-year-old nephew Romnick Jakaria before dawn Tuesday from their relatives’ house they were visiting on the island village of Tictabon off this southern city.

Mayor Celso Lobregat, head of the local crisis management committee, yesterday said authorities were verifying reports that the hostages were taken aboard two boats to the nearby island province of Basilan.

Basilan is a stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremists who have been blamed for kidnappings and deadly bombings over the past two decades.

Tictabon village chief Atang Mohammad Nur said a witness has come forward, saying he was ready to identify the kidnappers for failing to pay him although he was part of the planning.

A task force composed of elite police and military elements have been formed to go after the kidnappers.

“The intelligence operatives are working round the clock. They are all over the place and so with the investigating groups,” Lobregat said after a security briefing with senior police and military officials who arrived from Manila to look into the security preparations.

“At this point in time, there is no indication who the (kidnappers) are,” he said.

Lobregat confirmed that the US government has sent people from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who he said are coordinating with the crisis management committee. 

“They are sharing information with us,” he said.

Director Leocadio Santiago, operations chief of the Philippine National Police and a veteran in anti-Abu Sayyaf operations, said they were assessing the committee’s steps to ensure that police and military forces could synergize their operations if needed.

Santiago said the need to augment security forces would depend on the results of the intelligence gathering and the investigation.

“If there is really a requirement for additional forces to address the problem, then it will be up to the crisis management committee,” he said. – With AP, Jaime Laude