ARMM health workers decry midwife's kidnap

COTABATO CITY ,Philippines  – Health workers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) branded as an affront to Islam Thursday’s kidnapping of a fellow worker in Sulu by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf.

The rank-and-file of the regional health department is staging an indignation rally here today to condemn the kidnapping of 55-year-old midwife Hadja Evangeline Taverisma by four pistol-wielding men in the outskirts of Jolo, capital town of Sulu.

Sulu is a component province of the autonomous region.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, ARMM police director, said investigators are trying to determine if Taverisma could have been snatched and brought to an Abu Sayyaf lair somewhere in Sulu to treat its members who were wounded in recent encounters with the Marines.

“Everything is being done now to secure her (Taverisma’s) safe release,” Latag said without elaborating.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., ARMM health secretary, said the midwife’s kidnapping was a direct attack on the region’s medical community.            

Sinolinding said what is hurting for the rank-and-file of the region’s health department was that Taverisma, wife of a retired soldier, was snatched during the Ramadan season when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one lunar cycle, or about 28 days, and focus on good deeds as a religious obligation.

Sinolinding said employees of other line agencies in the autonomous region are joining their indignation rally today.

“Health workers are supposedly protected by Islamic war principles on respect for non-combatants and religious leaders,” said Ustadz Kahar Salilaguia, an imam (Islamic preacher) who works as volunteer relief worker for the ARMM’s health department.