Search launched for Chinese in latest Philippine abduction
( 2001-08-14 11:02 ) (7 )

The military launched search operations on Tuesday for three Chinese and a Filipino abducted while negotiating the freedom of a kidnapped Chinese engineer in the southern Philippines.

All four are believed to be held by renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's main Muslim insurgent force which signed a truce with Manila last week, military officials said.

"The military has launched massive pursuit operations against the suspected kidnappers," said Major Julieto Ando, spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division based in the island of Mindanao.

The abduction which occurred on Sunday and was reported a day later is the latest kidnapping incident to hit the south, reeling from decades of separatist Muslim rebellion.

Another Muslim guerrilla group, the Abu Sayyaf, has been holding 18 captives, including two US nationals, for months on the southern island of Basilan, where about 5,000 government troops are involved in search and rescue operations.

Ando said floods caused by a heavy downpour over the last few days as well as an ongoing ceasefire with the MILF were hampering the search in North Cotabato province.

He said the kidnappers were hiding in areas where the MILF operated from, but did not say the group had a hand in the abductions.

The military had asked the MILF to help in the search for the victims believed kept in a vast marshland.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters late on Monday that his group was checking on the latest abduction, stressing that they were not involved.

The three Chinese men and a Filipino guide had gone to pay a five million-peso (US$94,339) ransom for a Chinese engineer snatched by the same group in June, provincial governor Emmanuel Pinol said.

He identified the four kidnap victims as Zang Zong Yee, Wang Shung Li and Zho Zhing from China, and Filipino Edwin Lim.

The kidnapped engineer, Zang Zong Quiang, was the executive director of China Import Export Technologies Inc., a sub-contractor for a major irrigation project in the area.

When contacted by reporters, a Chinese embassy spokesman in Manila declined comment, saying they were still verifying reports on the kidnapping.

The military meanwhile was providing security to other Chinese nationals working on the government irrigation project.

"We have provided security to the Chinese workers and warned them against exposing themselves to much outside of their working area because of the threats of abduction," Ando said.

The gunmen, through a video tape released to the local press last month, originally demanded US$4 million from the subcontractor and threatened to behead the captive if the money was not paid.

The engineer appeared on the tape, looking haggard and tired as he was surrounded by about 15 heavily armed men.

The latest abduction comes amid President Gloria Arroyo's intensified crackdown against kidnap gangs preying mostly on rich Chinese-Filipino traders and foreign businessmen across the country.

The presidential palace announced on Monday the arrest of several members of two kidnap gangs responsible for the abduction of six people, including a Singaporean and Hong Kong resident, in recent months.