DUE to the news blackout on the “mysterious, alarming, rampant daily kidnapping in Jolo, Sulu,” concerned groups including Moro, civil-society organizations (CSOs) and human-rights bodies called for a news conference on Friday in Davao City, where they bared and condemned the kidnappings made by yet unknown groups to ordinary civilians since February.
“This alarming kidnapping spree started on February 17 with the kidnapping of Salinas couple whose whereabouts are still unknown up to this day. Since their kidnapping, more than 50 persons were already kidnapped in Sulu. In some cases where the victims are ordinary persons, the kidnappers are asking for a ransom of P3,000 only,” said Warina Sushil Jukuy, western Mindanao coordinator of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (Pahra).
She said there has been news blackout on “this very alarming, unstoppable kidnapping spree with the armed kidnappers victimizing not only Christians. Now, the kidnappers in Jolo, Sulu, are victimizing ordinary Muslims. One Samal woman was kidnapped and raped. Ordinary teachers, ordinary Badjaos, Samals are being kidnapped.”
“Kidnapping there is like eating your breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s happening three times a day,” Jukuy told reporters.
“In the history of Sulu, this is the first time that kidnappings like these are happening. The kidnappers are on a rampage. There’s a complete breakdown of law and order in the province now,” she said.
Marie Claire Salinas, 48, and her husband Bonifacio Salinas, 50, were snatched from their house by still-unidentified armed men at around 5:30 a.m. on February 17.
“They are longtime residents in Jolo with their families living in the area for about 70 years already,” Jukuy said.
She also said on Friday, a group of “1,000 rising” Muslims and people of Jolo themselves held an indignation rally in Jolo to “protest kidnappings and impunity in the province of Sulu.”
Phara and about 40 other CSOs led by the Mindanao Peoples Caucus have loudly appealed to President Aquino as commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippine to step in now and stop the rash of kidnappings in Jolo.
They also scored what they called the “ineffective posture and inaction” of Gov. Abdusakur Tan of Sulu and police and military officials in the province “for doing nothing and for only guarding officials and not ordinary citizens.”
“Is there an unseen hand at work in the sudden rash of kidnappings?” Jukuy asked.
The groups demanding for the immediate stop of the kidnappings through strong military and police action said there could be four speculations on the motive of the kidnapping spree: machination by the military, a destabilization project considering the recent Bangsamoro agreement, demonizing of Islam as kidnappers wear tasbih (prayer beads), and made by “drug addicts who abound in Jolo, Sulu.”
The groups also castigated the “suspicious release of Abu Sayyaf member Sali Said from the intensive care area of Camp Bagong Diwa” which they called “a classic example of how the provincial government of Sulu protects hardcore Abu Sayyaf kidnappers.”
They also hit “the persecution of Sulu’s human-rights defender Cocoy Tulawie” who continues to languish in jail after he was arrested in January 2012 in Davao City on what they called “fabricated charges” on his alleged involvement in the attempt to kill Tan in 2009.
The Regional Human Rights Commission (RHRC) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao joined with the groups calling for a stop to the rash of kidnapping and the end of impunity reigning in the province.
“The Philippine National Police and the regional and local government units must reassert their authority in Sulu to restore peace and order now. We cannot accept the present situation, we cannot ignore the lawlessness, and we cannot stand the deafening silence of our leaders and authorities,” RHRC said in a statement signed by its Chairman Almagar Latiph.
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