Sayyafs seize 4 in Sulu, Basilan

From the Sun Star-Zamboanga (May 22): Sayyafs seize 4 in Sulu, Basilan

SUSPECTED Abu Sayyaf bandits seized four people, including a government social worker, in separate occasions in the island provinces of Basilan and Sulu, officials said.

Two of the four hostages were released a day after they were seized in the province of Sulu.

A businessman, who was seized a month ago in Sulu by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits, has also been freed.

Abducted in Basilan province were fishing boat skipper Lucio Gonzales and social worker Jenelyn Entera while seized in Sulu were truck-mixer driver Hadji Sali Espada and his helper, who was identified only as a certain Dimar.

Basilan police director Senior Superintendent Mario Dapilloza said that Gonzales, the skipper of fishing boat (F/B) Albert, was seized around 8 a.m. Tuesday in the vicinity of Mataha, Lantawan municipality.

Dapilloza said the F/B Albert owned by Zamboanga City-based SMR Fishing Firm skippered was on a fishing venture when 15 gunmen aboard two motorboats locally known as “jungkung” arrived.

The gunmen suspected to be Abu Sayyaf bandits have seized Gonzales and sped towards the direction of Sulu province leaving behind the other crew of F/B Albert, Dapilloza said.

Dapilloza said that Entera (not Enpera as earlier reported) was seized by four gunmen suspected to be Abu Sayyaf bandits at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the village of Ulitan, Ungkaya Pukan, Basilan province.

Entera was inspecting some of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries in the village of Ulitan when the gunmen seized her, Dapilloza said.

The victim was forced to board in one of two unregistered motorcycles that sped towards the municipality of Sumisip, Dapilloza said.

Entera is a social work staff of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and in charge of the agency’s 4Ps in Ungkaya Pukan town.

Espada and Dimar were seized by more or less 10 gunmen believed to be Abu Sayyaf bandits around 2:30 p.m. Monday at Sitio Santol, Latih village, Patikul, Sulu.

Task Force Sulu Commander Colonel Jose Joriel Cenabre said they were traveling aboard a truck mixer when the suspected bandits waylaid and seized them.

Cenabre said that Espada and Dimar were freed around 1 p.m. Tuesday at the circumferential road of Patikul municipality.

Businessman Renato Yanga, 53, was secretly released around 11 p.m. Monday in an undisclosed location in Jolo, Sulu following a month in captivity.

Yanga, owner of Top Spot coffee shop and restaurant and a resident of Serantes Street, Jolo, Sulu, was seized last April 20 while he was opening his coffee shop.

The abduction of Yanga last month was the second time to happen to him.

He was kidnapped on April 10, 2005 and was freed three months later.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/zamboanga/local-news/2013/05/22/sayyafs-seize-4-sulu-basilan-283672