ZAMBOANGA CITY: Abu Sayyaf gunmen beheaded a school principal they kidnapped in Sulu province in the southern Philippines after his family failed to pay ransom.
Security officials said the head of Gabriel Canizares was discovered in a bag left at a gas station in the capital town of Jolo at around 5 a.m.
The kidnappers initially demanded two million pesos for his liberty and eventually lowered this to one million pesos. His body is still missing.
The 36-year old principal of the Kanague Elementary School in Patikul town was kidnapped Oct. 19 in the town of Patikul in Sulu.
Canizares was in a jeep returning home to Jolo when a dozen gunmen flagged down the vehicle and took him away in front of his terrified Muslim teachers in the village of Tanum.
Teachers earlier appealed to the government in Manila to give importance and attention to Canizares in the same way as that of the kidnapped Irish Catholic priest Michael Sinnott.
The 79-year old Sinnott was taken at gunpoint by six men from his house in Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur province in Mindanao on Oct. 11.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small, but the most violent rebel group tagged by the police and military as behind the spate of attacks and terrorism in the troubled region.
