A Filipino engineer who was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf Group on Valentine’s Day was released from captivity somewhere in the hinterlands of Jolo, Sulu Monday.
Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana identified the freed kidnap victim as Engineer Enrico Nee, district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Sulu.
Sobejana provided no details of the release of Nee except that the Abu Sayyaf bandits set him free at about 8 a.m. the other day.
Reports said engineer Nee was taken near his house in Barangay Kasalamatan, Jolo at around 7:45 a.m. on Valentine’s Day.
The victim was waiting for a tricycle few meters away from his house when armed men believed to be ASG bandits on board a vehicle alighted and took him at gunpoint and hurriedly fled towards Barangay Anuling, Patikul.
Sobejana said ASG commander Hayan Sawadjaan, the most senior leader of the terrorist group and the group of Mujir Hadiada were responsible in the abduction of Nee.
He hinted that Nee’s captors were forced to set him free due to the tremendous pressure applied by the military against the terrorist group.
The involvement of Sawadjaan and Hadiada was attested by the kidnapped policemen who averred that indeed the ASG was pressured in letting Nee’s liberty.
“He was released because out of the pressure of our combat military operations. As you know we really focus in employing three brigades in Sulu under the task force,” sobejana said.
“This validates the information shared to us by the two female personnel that the bandits are in limbo inside and the kidnap victims are delaying their movement and believing that the military will not stop in their manhunt until such time the last KV is released,” Sobejana said.
He said the ASG are still holding at least nine kidnap victims consisting of a Dutch national, three Indonesians, a Vietnamese and four Filipinos.