Kidnapped placement firm exec rescued in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Police rescued on Wednesday a manager of a Manila-based foreign employment placement agency who was snatched by armed men in Datu Odin Sinsuat town this province.

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 aboard a white car flagged her down on Wednesday morning along a secluded stretch of the highway in Barangay Makir and dragged her into their getaway vehicle.

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

Two of the kidnappers, according to barangay officials, were wounded in the firefight.

Hussin, manager of the Manila-based Kingdom International Manpower Agency, has been going around 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 his men managed to rescue Hussin.

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

He said investigators are now trying to determine the identities of Hussin’s kidnappers whose getaway car is now in police custody.