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CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (UPDATED) – A South Korean engineer kidnapped by armed men in Lanao del Sur on January 19 was “recovered” by authorities from that province.
Police Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr said on Wednesday, February 4, that the operation to recover Sung Ki Yoon was conducted by combined elements of the Anti-Kidnapping Group, Lanao del Sur provincial police, and police operatives from Camp Vicente Alagar in Cagayan de Oro City.
Cruz said Yoon, a 51-year-old engineer of a Cagayan de Oro mining firm, was recovered at 10 pm on Tuesday, February 3, in the same town where he was abducted.
Yoon was abducted by armed men in Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur on January 19. He was reportedly led to believe that he had a prospective mining business in the Lanao de Sur town.
Yong Jong Park, Korean embassy consul and police attaché who was in Cagayan de Oro to fetch Yoon, said that the kidnap victim is in stable medical condition but needs a lot of rest.
Police escort under investigation
Cruz said that the police is investigating Yoon’s police escort when he went to Saguiaran town on January 19.
Cruz said that Police officer 2 Ruel Villago of the Misamis Oriental Police office, who was with Sung at the time, was released by the kidnappers.
Villago has been restricted to quarters.
Cruz and Park said that the kidnappers did not demand “board and lodging” payment – another term for ransom payment.
Park, a high ranking police officer in Korea, said that he was with Yoon’s family during their ordeal but said that they followed state policy of no ransom payment.
“We know how the national police work, we have work with them before in similar cases,” Park said.
Park said that their embassy also warned Korean nationals in the Philippines to take extra precautions when venturing out of urban centers in Mindanao.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction but in previous incidents, the police and military blamed the Pentagon group, a kidnap-for-ransom gang that has gained notoriety for a string of kidnapping cases in the southern region of Mindanao.
The group first gained notoriety on October 17, 2001, when it abducted Italian priest Guissepe Pierrantoni on his mission in Zamboanga del Sur province. Pierrantoni was released after 6 months in captivity.
The Pentagon gang is also said to be behind the abduction of 4 Chinese engineers working on an irrigation project in Carmen, North Cotabato 9 years ago. Two of the engineers were killed during a botched military operation. – Rappler.com
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