By Roy Ramos & Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines
After kidnappers with possible links to armed groups snatched a South Korean in the Philippines’ Muslim south, security forces searched the hinterlands and coast of Kabasalan town Friday.
Sr. Supt. Roy Bahian, Zamboanga Sibugay provincial police director, said businessman Li Pei Zhei, 25, was seized by four unidentified men with high-powered firearms at around 6:25 p.m. Thursday in Zamboanga Sibugay province, which is adjacent to the predominantly Christian city of Zamboanga.
Bahian said police, soldiers and militiamen have joined forces to track down the abductors - led by notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang leader Abu Musa – who dragged Li to a mini van that sped away to a still unknown place.
Kabasalan Mayor George Cainglet said a security guard employed at Li’s store was not able to protect the victim as he was overpowered by the armed assailants.
The abductors reportedly fled onboard a motorized pump boat, heading toward Kabasalan’s Limono Island.
Security forces have been checking the hinterland and seas of Zamboanga Sibugay, as well as setting up checkpoints and "blocking forces" at the province’s exit and entry points.
A police intelligence source told the Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media that Abu Musa’s kidnap-for-ransom gang had abducted several victims in the past, including a retired Australian soldier married to a Filipina.
Warren Richard Rodwell, 53, was kidnapped in December 2011 from his residence in Zamboanga Sibugay’s Ipil town, and freed after 15 months in captivity.
The modus operandi of the kidnap gang, according to the police source, is snatching victims and turning them over to the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militant group, who keeps the hostage while the gang negotiates for a ransom – which, if paid, is shared by both groups.
The latest kidnapping comes a day after the arrest of a member of the “Mamay Aburi Group,” a notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang, in an intelligence and law enforcement operation along the coast of Zamboanga Sibugay.
Masdal Sabtal had a warrant for his arrest for kidnapping, serious illegal detention and robbery.
Meanwhile, a suspected Abu Sayyaf member tagged in mass abductions was captured Wednesday by security forces in the island province of Basilan – a known stronghold of the militant group.
According to the military, Ismael Cawa - alias Abu Ismael – was wanted for eight counts of kidnapping with serious illegal detention with ransom.
Authorities have linked Cawa to the abduction of plantation workers in Lantawan town in 2001, and suspect him of involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of 20 tourists from the Dos Palmas Resort in the island province of Palawan.
At least five of the original hostages died in the crisis, including Americans Guillermo Sobero – who was beheaded – and Martin Burnham - shot dead during a military rescue operation in 2002.
Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.
It is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.
