COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 21, 2008) – Kidnappers freed a beach resort owner after more than two weeks in captivity in the southern Philippines, reports said.
Reports said Perfecto Martinez, who was seized September 9 in Mindanao, was released before sunrise in Cotabato City. It was unknown whether his family paid ransom or not, but the kidnappers had demanded at least ten million pesos for his safe release.
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a regional army spokesman, said Martinez owned the El Bimbo Resort in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Shariff Kabunsuan, one of six provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region.
Ando said Martinez was driving his car when gunmen flagged down the vehicle and forcibly took him. Although no group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, authorities suspect the Pentagon Gang and rogue members of the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front were behind it.
Last month, gunmen also kidnapped a Filipino doctor, Milagros Yap, in Cotabato City near Shariff Kabunsuan town, but security forces rescued her after killing one the captors in a running gun battle. (With a report from Mark Navales)
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