Private firm exec rescued from abductors in Sinsuat town

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Policemen  rescued Wednesday a manager of a Manila-based foreign employment placement agency kidnapped by gunmen in Barangay Makir in Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

The victim, Milagros Abu Hussin, was on her way to Cotabato City from Sultan Kudarat province, along with several prospective applicants for jobs abroad, when five men riding a white car flagged them down Wednesday morning while at a secluded stretch of a highway in Barangay Makir and forced her into their getaway vehicle.

Inspector Datu Tulon Pinguiaman, chief of the Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police, said the suspects took Hussin to another barangay far from the highway, but were forced to abandon her when responding policemen arrived and traded shots with them.

Barangay officials said the kidnappers scampered to different directions when two of them got wounded in the ensuing firefight.

Hussin has been touring Central Mindanao since late August to recruit workers for employment in the Middle East.

Pinguiaman said it was with the cooperation of barangay officials, mostly members of the municipal two-way radio emergency group, that the Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police managed to rescue Hussin.

“It was the barangay officials that provided pursuing policemen information on (the) escape route of the kidnappers through their two-way radios,” Pinguiaman said.

Hussin is manager of the Manila-based Kingdom International Manpower Agency.

Pinguiaman said investigators are now trying to determine the identities of her abductors, whose getaway car is now in police custody.