MANILA: Troops have fanned out on a southern island to search for gunmen who abducted three members of the International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC), including an Italian and a Swiss national, officials said yesterday.
The abduction, on the island of Jolo, took place on Thursday but there has been no sighting of or communication from the kidnappers, believed to be from the notorious Abu Sayyaf group of radicals, they said.
“We’re not really sure whether the Abu Sayyaf was behind the kidnapping because no group has come forward to claim responsibility for the abduction,” Marine Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, military commander in the Western Mindanao area, said.
Allaga said authorities had received information a former guard at a provincial jail on Jolo, which the ICRC team visited earlier in the week, could have been involved in the abduction.
“We’re still validating information a former jail guard was in cahoots with the gunmen that abducted the ICRC team,” Allaga said, adding the suspect was also believed to have been involved in the escape of 12 inmates from the prison on Tuesday.
The ICRC has identified the three kidnap victims as Andreas Notter, a 38-year-old Swiss national; Eugenio Vagni, a 62-year-old Italian and Mary Jean Lacaba, a 37-year-old from the Philippines.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said the troops were focusing on three areas where the gunmen were believed to have taken the captives.
“We have not heard anything from anybody,” spokesman Roland Bigler said. “We don’t know what group was behind the kidnapping.”
— With input from agencies
