MAGUINDANAO (Mark Navales / 09 Jul) Kidnappers released Sunday an 11-year old boy after two weeks in captivity in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said Kurt Degracia was freed before dawn on a remote village called Makabisu in the town of Sultan Mastura in Maguindanao, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
"The boy is okay and is reunited with his family. There is an ongoing operation against the kidnappers," Marine Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino, deputy commander of the Southern Command, told the Zamboanga Journal.
Gunmen seized the boy June 23 inside the Landasan Central Pilot Elementary School in Parang town, also in Maguindanao. His family owns a chain of hardware stores.
Dolorfino said the hostage was handed to Talib Abo, the mayor of Parang town, and taken to his anxious family. He did not say whether ransom was paid by the boy's family. "We have no idea whether ransom was paid or not, but the government has a strict no-ransom policy," he said.
The release, Dolorfino said, came just a week after Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels, helping government soldiers rescue the boy, raided a hideout of the kidnappers in Maguindanao, but they failed to find the hostage. One soldier, he said, died after he drowned in a river while pursuing the kidnappers.
Dolorfino said local bandits were behind the boy's kidnapping. "We have identified the kidnap gang leader and he is now the subject of a joint AFP-MILF operation in Maguindanao," he said without elaborating further.
He said the MILF, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, is working closely with the military through the ad-hoc joint action group to track down the kidnappers.
Just this month, kidnappers also freed a Muslim poll official after private negotiators allegedly paid some 100,000 pesos in exchange for his life in Lanao del Norte province.
The 56-year old Disalungan Pulala, of the Commission on Election, was released in the remote village of Ulangu in the town of Balo'i. He was kidnapped on his way to mosque in Iligan City.
Last month, gunmen seized Pala-o Diamla, a court sheriff in Marawi City in Lanao de Sur province on orders from a politician who lost in the May 2004 elections. Diamla was returning home May 30 when kidnapped by a band of armed men.
He was freed a week later after MILF rebels, backed by government soldiers, threatened to assault the kidnappers' hideout in the province. The military said a defeated town vice mayoralty candidate, who has a pending electoral protest, allegedly masterminded the kidnapping to forcethe court to rule on his favor.
Even judges in the provinces who were hearing election protests were also under threat.
MILF forces also rescued in May a nine-year old girl, Donna May Ramos, kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits in the southern island of Basilan.
The MILF, the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group, forged an agreement in 2004 that paved the way for rebel forces to help government hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the MILF is actively operating. (With a report from Juan Magtanggol)
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