ZAMBOANGA CITY, 16 September 2005 — A businesswoman held captive by a kidnap gang for more than a year had been rescued by government troops in the southern province of Maguindanao, police said yesterday.
Police clashed with the gang of about 30 kidnappers near the town of Datu Odin Sinsuat in Mindanao island on Tuesday, leading to the rescue of 53 year-old Zuela Kansi, they said.
Kansi was unhurt and there were no immediate reports of casualties on either side, a police report said, adding that the suspects escaped.
Gunmen seized the victim 19 months ago from her shop in Sultan Kudarat province and demanded unspecified ransom.
They were believed to be former separatist guerrillas who turned to banditry.
Businessmen, foreigners and missionaries are often targets of kidnapping for ransom by armed gangs which operate in Mindanao.
Military and police officials assured the public, however, that the government has been winning in the campaign against extremists, terrorists and criminal gangs in the south.
On Wednesday, troops captured Nurham Amil, one of the country’s most wanted criminals blamed for the abductions of an Italian priest in 2001 and five Chinese engineers the same year.
Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, chief of the military’s Southern Command, presented to reporters Amil, alias Commander Ramsey, who had been tagged as head of the notorious kidnapping group called Pentagon Gang.
Amil was arrested late Wednesday at a military checkpoint in Leon Postigo town in Zamboanga del Norte province after special forces soldiers tracked him down.
Adan said the capture of Amil only shows that while some criminals have proved to be elusive, they are not beyond capture.
The capture of Amil, who has a 500,000-peso bounty on his head, was a timely showcase for New Zealand army chief Maj. Gen. Jeremiah Mateparae, who visited Zamboanga City yesterday in a bid to boost cooperation against terrorism between his country and the Philippines.
Metaparae met with senior commanders, who gave him a briefing on on the security situation in the troubled region where troops are battling members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and the communist New People’s Army (NPA).
Metaparae did not speak to reporters but allowed journalists to photograph him inside the tightly guarded military base before the meeting.
“We briefed him about the situation in the southern Philippines,” army Col. Domingo Tutaan said, without elaborating. (With input from Agence France Presse)
