Kidnapped trader freed

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Kidnappers have set free in Datu Odin Sinsuat town this province a trader they snatched last month in Barangay Kauran, Ampatuan town where he operates a grains buy-and-sell business.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said trader Kenneth Cabrera, 27, was abandoned by his captors near the premises of the University of Southern Mindanao in the town proper of Datu Odin Sinsuat this week.

Datu Odin Sinsuat is about 40 kilometers northwest of Ampatuan, where Cabrera resides.

Hermoso said someone called up and informed Ampatuan town Mayor Rasul Sangki that Cabrera was freed by his captors in Datu Odin Sinsuat in the first district of Maguindanao.

Hermoso said Ampatuan officials fetched Cabrera and brought him to a doctor for medical examination.

Police earlier had blamed members of the radical Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) for the kidnapping of Cabrera.

BIFM spokesman Abu Misry Mama, however, disputed this in an interview with radio station dxMS in Cotabato City.

Cabrera’s relatives denied having paid ransom for his release.