Police, military intensify search for kidnap victims

ZAMBOANGA CITY ,Philippines   – Police and the military have widened their search in western Mindanao for two US nationals and a relative, as there have been no clues since they were seized in an island village here last Tuesday.

“This search is massive,” said Mayor Celso Lobregat, chairman of the local Crisis Management Committee, referring to the search for Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, her son Kevin Eric, 14, and nephew Romnick Jakaria, 19, who were snatched in the island village of Tic­tabon off this city.

Lobregat said local police authorities have linked up with the police units in other areas, while the Task Force Zamboanga of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has done the same with other units within and outside the Zamboanga peninsula for the intensified search for the victims.

Lobregat said they were verifying reports that the kidnappers have separated Jakaria from the Lunsmanns.

He quoted a fisherman as saying that during the kidnapping, he saw two pump boats heading toward different directions.

Policemen and Jakaria’s sister Alma went to Malamawi Island in Basilan the other day to check if Jakaria was there and to determine his background as he was reported to have disclosed that he wanted to seek financial assistance from the Lunsmanns.

Lobregat said he is not feeling any pressure on the situation, adding that the authorities, including US security representatives, have been coordinating and sharing information that could help in the early resolution of the kidnapping.

However, he said the kidnapping presents a situation where “nobody wants to be in.” “We hope it never happened. We hope it will go away, but it will not go away. We have to face it squarely,” he added.