KIDNAPPERS DEMAND RANSOM FOR ABDUCTED TEACHERS IN PHILIPPINES

MANILA, Philippines - Kidnappers have demanded P 4 million for the release of two teachers abducted in the southern Philippines on Monday, a TV report said yesterday.
The 30 armed men who kidnapped Keno Sanchez and Rene Sumagang, of Limunsudan Bayug Falls Elementary school, left the demand letter where the pair were kidnapped, at Rongongon village, Iligan City, Senior Superintendent Celso Regencia, chief of Iligan City Police said in an interview.

• The two teachers were resting at the school when they were abducted, a source said. But Regencia said they had left the school on a motorcycle and were on the road when they were flagged down by the gunmen. Regencia did not say where the authorities found the kidnappers' letter.
• The two teachers were brought to a forest area by a group led by Mangagao Elias also known as ‘Commander Ayatola', said Regencia.
• Meanwhile, Rosalyn Kiram, 54, and five other co-workers were kidnapped by armed men while onboard a mobile clinic in Patikul, Sulu province on Monday afternoon.
• "Kiram's companions were released unharmed an hour after the incident. The abductors belong to an Abu Sayyaf group led by Minok Sappari," Felicisimo Khu, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao also said in a TV interview yesterday.
• The kidnappers have not yet sent a ransom demand for Kiram's release, said Khu.

Local government leaders have asked the police in Iligan and Sulu to track down the whereabouts of the victims and their abductors, said Regencia and Khu.
The Abu Sayyaf group has been blamed for the kidnappings, beheadings, bombings and other terror activities in the south of the country.
It has also been blamed for the bombing that sank a ferry and killed one hundred people at the Manila Bay in 2004.

Source: Agency