AFP: 200 kidnapped in Mindanao since 2003

MANILA, Philippines – About 200 individuals have been abducted in at least 93 kidnapping incidents in southern Philippines since 2003, military documents showed. The number of the kidnapping victims includes the three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers who were seized in January 2009. Two of the foreign aid volunteers are still in the hands of their captors in the southern island of Jolo. Military documents said the spate of kidnappings was perpetrated mostly by the Abu Sayyaf. Western Mindanao Of the 200 victims, 83 were seized in Western Mindanao in 45 kidnapping incidents in 2008 and 2009. Western Mindanao is composed of the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga City, and Isabela City in Basilan. The military records did not include the kidnapping of Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, who was abducted in Zamboanga Sibugay in June 10, 2007. He was released 39 days later. Fourteen Marines searching for Bossi in Basilan were killed in an ambush. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces claimed responsibility for the ambush, but disowned the beheading of 10 of the military casualties. Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi In Basilan, military documents said that 33 victims and a family – whose members is still undetermined – were seized from 2003 to 2009 in 17 kidnapping incidents. In Sulu, 54 victims have been abducted in 25 kidnapping incidents since 2003. The number includes the kidnapping of television reporter Ces Oreňa Drilon of ABS-CBN, her two cameramen, and professor Octavio Dimampo in Indanan town in June 2008. Basilan and Sulu are perceived to be strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf. In Tawi-Tawi, the 29 victims were kidnapped in the six kidnapping incidents from 2003 to 2009. According to the documents, the Abu Sayyaf got as much as P22 million in ransom money for the kidnappings in Sulu alone. Of the amount, P20 million was supposedly given in exchange for the freedom of Drilon. “A total of P20 million ransom was paid through the negotiations made by Mayor Alvarez Isnaji and his son. Victims were released," the report read. Foreign tourists Among the high-profile kidnappings recorded before 2003 included the April 23, 2000 abduction of 19 foreigners and two Filipinos in Sipadan, Malaysia, and the May 27, 2001 kidnapping of tourists and workers from Dos Palmas Beach Resort in Palawan. Three Americans and 17 Filipino tourists and workers were snatched from the Dos Palmas resort. The Abu Sayyaf bandits beheaded one of the Americans weeks after the abduction as a “birthday gift" to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and to show that they mean business. Missionary Martin Burnham was killed a year later during a military rescue operation. His wife, Gracia, was injured but rescued. - Sophia M. Dedace, GMANews.TV