By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Three construction workers abducted by al-Qaeda-linked militants were released Thursday after an hour-long pursuit by security forces in the southern Philippines.
Capt. Rowena Muyuela, Western Mindanao Command spokesperson, said in a statement that troops conducting law enforcement operations rescued three workers at around 9.00 a.m. (0100GMT) in Akbar town of Basilan province – a known Abu Sayyaf stronghold.
"They [victims] were on board a red truck… when they were flagged down and forcibly taken by five fully-armed Abu Sayyaf members in Barangay [village] Cadayan today," she said.
Citing Joint Task Group Basilan’s public affairs officer Capt. Eugenio Espino, Muyuela said troops and police immediately launched pursuit operations upon receiving reports of the abduction of the three men, ranging between 17 and 40 in age.
The victims, who were released by their abductors around an hour into the pursuit, fled to the area of their truck, where they were rescued by government troops, according to Muyuela.
"Intensified pursuit operations are being launched by military, police and the local government against the suspects [Abu Sayyaf] who remain at large," she added.
The abduction comes on the heels of a powerful explosion that destroyed road construction equipment belonging to Basilan’s provincial engineering office in the remote town of Tipo-Tipo late Tuesday night.
Senior Insp. Gean Gallardo, Lamitan City police chief, told local radio station DXNO that the motive behind the grenade attack could be extortion. He said the Abu Sayyaf had demanded P900 million (more than $20 million) from the office, which was undertaking the construction of a circumferential road project funded by Saudi Arabia.
Mujiv Hataman, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, had earlier expressed confidence that the multi-million-peso (dollar) effort, which runs around 80 kilometers (nearly 50 miles) and is designed to improve the livelihood of the local Muslim population by linking nearly half of Basilan’s main highways, would be completed soon.
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.
