Two kidnapped-victims released in southern Philippines

Source: gulfnews

Seven-year old student and 34-year old wife of Scottish oilman released from kidnappers

Manila: A seven year-old student and a 34-year old business woman married to a Scottish oilman were both released from their kidnappers, following clashes with Muslim bandits in two separate places in restive southern Philippines late Monday, belated reports said Tuesday.

Elsie Navarro, 7, and her mother Elsie Navarro, a public school teacher, were reunited at 9:45 Monday night, one hour after Delia Sultan, a provincial board member, found the kidnap-victim in a far-flung area between Balong and Kabasalan Villages, Pikit town, North Cotabato, following a phone instruction from unidentified kidnappers, a source told Gulf News.

Ransom payment was not made, Sultan was quoted as saying. Her husband Sumulong Sultan, mayor of Pikit, formed a crisis committee composed of several local village officials and residents in Balong Village to negotiate for the release of the young victim. Negotiations were done through a mobile number left by the kidnappers.

A team of the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (Pacer) and the military sealed off all escape routes from Pikit. The Philippine Army provided dogs that accompanied the policemen who tracked down the kidnappers, police and military reports said.

The kidnappers released the young kidnap-victim because of pressure from various sectors, said Butch Gilman, coordinator of Ceasefire Watch, a non government organization that has been monitoring the ceasefire agreement between Muslim rebels and government soldiers in Cotabato.

Formerly separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is engaged in pro-autonomy peace talks with the government, also launched a rescue operation for Navarro, said Gilman.

Two gunmen aboard a motorcycle seized the young Navarro after lunch Monday, when she and her mother were going to her school in Poblacion Village, also in Cotabato's Pikit town.

The Navarro family received a note from the kidnappers, saying that the abduction should not be reported to the police, otherwise the young girl would be killed. The note included a phone number, but not the group's identity.

"Efforts are underway to identify them for the filing of charges against them," said a local government official who requested for anonymity.

Meanwhile, Luisa Galvez Morrison, 34, underwent treatment in a military hospital for slight injuries she sustained in her legs following clashes between government soldiers and her kidnappers, identified as members of the Abu Sayyaf Group that led to her release in Sitio Bohe Peyat, Baiwas Village in Sumisip, Basilan at three Monday afternoon, Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang of the Armed Forces' Western Mindanao Command said in a belated report on Tuesday.

"She is now stable and was given security when brought to her residence at Neriscom Subdivision, Magdaup village, Ipil municipality," another source told Gulf News.

"When her abductors had left, she was found dazed and stunned after the clash," said Cabangbang.

Three members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, identified as Abu Sa-id, Abdul Aziz and a certain Mukim were killed during the clash. Seven others, including the victim and one soldier, identified as Arjae de Ramos, were wounded in the clash," said Cabangbang.

Identifying the kidnappers of Galvez-Morrison, Cabangbang said they belonged to the Abu Sayyaf Group led by Radzmer Temmeng Jannatul and a certain Juhayver, also know as Abu Kik.

Members of the three Army platoons who were involved in the clash were not part of the rescue operation for Galvez-Morrison. The armed men found at Sitio Bohe Peyat, turned out to be her abductors, said Cabnagbang.

Earlier, Police Regional Office 9 Director Chief Supt. Elpidio Z. De Asis Jr. had created Task Force Galvez for a rescue operation of the kidnap victim. It was headed by Sr. Supt. Felixberto Candado.

Her husband Raymond Morrison, a Scottish from Keith, Moray is based in Malaysia where he has been working for an oil company.

Last September 4, Galvez-Morrison was kidnapped by abductors who initially posed as clients at the RL Salon and Spa, in Ipil town, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Security forces blame the Abu Sayyaf Group for the kidnapping of Americans Gerfa and her son Kevin Lunsman, including a relative, also in the south. The woman, married to Eric Lunsmann, is a Filipina who built a family owned resort in restive Mindanao.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the kidnapping of an Indian national, a Japanese convert to Islam, and a Malaysian in the south.

In 2010, the Abu Sayyaf Group undertook 11 kidnap-for-ransom activities that resulted in six deaths and $ 705,000 ransom payments, a military report said.

The Abu Sayyaf Group has links with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian conduit of the Al Qaida terror network.