P10-M ransom sought for councilor, associate

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The kidnappers of a last-term councilor in Naga town, Zamboanga Sibugay and his female business associate have demanded P10-million ransom in exchange for the release of the victims. 

The kidnappers issued the ransom demand after Chennie Sandagon, a daughter of councilor Ronnie Sandagon, 50, managed to establish contact with them last Monday.

The elder Sandagon and his business associate, Nancy Lucero-Gunato, 38, who worked as contact persons for Ocean World marine products, were seized by five armed men in their buying station beside a private wharf in Barangay Baliwasan here early last Sunday.

Sandagon’s wife Helen said she could not say if the ransom were for both her husband and Gunato. 

She belied reports that she and Sandagon have separated and that Sandagon and Gunato were live-in partners. Gunato is her husband’s second cousin, she said.