Kidnapped Zambo school exec released

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – A public school supervisor, held for seven months by a gang linked to the Abu Sayyaf group, was released before midnight Tuesday, police said yesterday.

Inspector Dahlan Samuddin, Police Regional Office 9 information officer, said Rudy Luna was left by his captors at the fish port of Tukuran town, where he walked toward the house of his brother, Police Officer 3 Jun Luna.

Luna, a supervisor of Kumalarang Central Elementary School, was kidnapped along with his wife, Tessie, on Jan. 27 in Barangay Diplo, Kumalarang town. Tessie managed to escape and reported the incident to authorities.

Sammudin refused to give further details on Luna’s release but a police intelligence operative, who refused to be identified, said there had been negotiations between an emissary of the victim’s family and the kidnappers in a coffee shop near a bus terminal in Buug town, Zamboanga Sibugay.

The ransom was reportedly handed to a female courier of the kidnappers.

Luna was brought to a hospital in Pagadian City after he was handed over to the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group.