Abductors release Cotabato power coop employee

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 11, 2021): Abductors release Cotabato power coop employee (By John Andrew Tabugoc)

FREED. Mayor Herlo Guzman of Kabacan, North Cotabato (in pink shirt), visits Kier Selebio (in hospital bed), the abducted Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) field technician who was released on Wednesday night (Feb. 10, 2021) by still unknown abductors in Don Carlos town of Bukidnon province. The victim was snatched last Monday (Feb. 8, 2021) as he was installing solar panels at homes in the remote village of Kabalantian in Arakan, North Cotabato, which borders Bukidnon. (Photo courtesy of Kabacan LGU)

MATALAM, North Cotabato – The management of the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) here has confirmed the release of its field technician who was abducted by armed men in a remote village of Arakan town earlier this week.

Engr. Godofredo B. Homez, Cotelco general manager, said that victim Kier Selebio, a Cotelco field technician, was released at Don Carlos town in the adjacent Bukidnon province around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Based on Don Carlos police records, Selebio was abandoned by his abductors at the secluded village and sought assistance from a nearby house where he was able to call his wife through a mobile phone.

“He was left behind and heard nothing, so he tried to crawl and untied his hands and sought assistance from nearby residents in the area,” Homez told the Philippine News Agency here in an interview.

Homez added that the victim could not identify what group took him, nor the motive for the abduction.

Around midnight Wednesday, Selebio was fetched by a vehicle provided by the town government of Kabacan, North Cotabato at the Don Carlos municipal police station.

“The victim was very hungry as he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and was not given food and water for two days and two nights by his abductors,” the mayor said of the victim who is currently confined at the Mindanao Medical Hospital in Kabacan.

Homez assured that the victim will be given ample assistance by the Cotelco company as the latter is entitled to medical benefits as an employee.

“We will extend all possible assistance to the victim and his family,” the Cotelco official said.

The victim was abducted on Feb. 8 in the remote village of Kabalantian in Arakan that borders Bukidnon province as he was installing solar home panels in the village.

The peripheries of Arakan is one of the areas in North Cotabato where New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists operate. The NPA, together with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1130350