US vows to fully cooperate for recovery of kidnap victims

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The US government vowed to extend its full cooperation with the local crisis management committee for the early recovery of two American citizens who were seized along with a relative on an island off this city last Tuesday, Mayor Celso Lobregat said yesterday.

Lobregat, who chairs the committee, said he was able to talk with the regional security officer of the US embassy who informed him that the US government would extend its “full cooperation” for the recovery of Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 42, and her son Kevin Eric, 14, who reside in Virginia state.

Mother and son were snatched along with relative Romnick Jakaria, 19, while on their last day of vacation in the island village of Tictabon. 

Lobregat said US Ambassador Harry Thomas, in a phone conversation yesterday morning, assured him that “they will give all the cooperation that is needed.” 

He quoted Thomas as saying that the US would share information that might come from the Lunsmanns’ family in the US.

However, Thomas, according to Lobregat, informed him that the kidnappers have not yet contacted Lunsmann’s husband in the US.

The US ambassador also denied reports in international papers and on news websites that the kidnappers have demanded a $2-million ransom.

“The ambassador said that is completely untrue. There has been no demand, no contact whatsoever,” Lobregat said.

“Thomas, who described the incident as unfortunate, also advised the crisis management committee to stay patient,” he said.

Lobregat also quoted Thomas as saying that the Lunsmanns are not wealthy, as the woman is just a veterinarian and her husband a regular worker.

“The family is definitely not a wealthy family,” Lobregat said.

Meanwhile, Director Leocadio Santiago, Philippine National Police chief for operations, said US troops are not allowed to directly participate in the ongoing search for the kidnap victims, believed now being held in Basilan.

Santiago said US security forces are bound by Philippine laws and policies as far as such operations are concern. 

This, as the police and military are preparing for a possible rescue operation for the Lunsmanns and Jakaria, who were dragged to two pumpboats that sailed toward Basilan, a known stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf.

“As far as the US security forces are concerned, they are bound by protocols,” Santiago said. “There are rigid guidelines.”

Santiago said what the US forces are extending is more on technical assistance.

Lobregat said personnel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are coordinating with them. “They are sharing information with us,” he said.

So far, authorities said they have received no word from the kidnappers.

A spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Von Al Haq, said his group had nothing to do with the kidnapping.

US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a news conference in Washington Wednesday: “We clearly remain concerned about their safety and well-being, and we’re working with the Philippine authorities and have also been in contact with the families of these individuals to provide appropriate consular assistance.”

The Lunsmanns’ friends in Virginia reacted with shock and anger to the kidnapping. WDBJ-TV quoted the Lunsmanns’ friend, Jean Gowen, as saying that 14-year-old Kevin Eric had expressed fears about going to the Philippines because his family’s compound there was under constant guard.

Lunsmann’s husband Hiko was monitoring the situation and has spoken with his wife’s family in the Philippines, WDBJ-TV said.

Lunsmann is originally from Pangapuyan, a tiny island village not far from where she and her son were vacationing with relatives when they were snatched, Chief Inspector Nonito Asdai said.

Asdai said she was adopted by an American couple when she was nine years old and grew up in the US.

The last time Americans were held hostage in the southern Philippines was in 2002, when US-backed Filipino troops stormed an Abu Sayyaf jungle camp to rescue missionary Gracia Burnham and her husband, Martin. He was killed in the operation. A third American, Guillermo Sobero, was earlier beheaded by the militants in Basilan.

Since then, hundreds of US troops in the south have been training Filipino soldiers and sharing intelligence information with them as part of Philippine government offensives that have killed and captured dozens of militants. – With AP