AFP: Drug suspects, not Abu Sayyaf snatched girl

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  —  The Abu Sayyaf is not involved in the kidnapping of a seven-year-old girl in Tawi-Tawi on Monday night, a military official said yesterday.

Brig. Gen. Custodio Parcon, Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi commander, said yesterday members of a drug ring snatched Radznalyn Astah in Barangay Himba, Tandubas. 

The gunmen fled on a pumpboat after taking the girl from a store owned by the parents of the victim in Sitio Palau Pinang.

Parcon said the suspects and their captive were monitored to have fled toward Baluman island in Languyan town also in Tawi-Tawi, contrary to police reports that they escaped toward Sulu.

Parcon said the kidnappers have not contacted the parents of the victim.

President Duterte had earlier said members of drug rings and other crime groups were shifting to kidnapping due to the government’s relentless war on drugs.

The Abu Sayyaf had staged kidnappings targeting crewmembers of foreign vessels along the shores of Tawi-Tawi.

The bandits are still holding a Dutchman, a Vietnamese, three Indonesians and four Filipinos in the jungles of Sulu.

The captives were taken at the border of the Philippines and Malaysia between 2012 and 2016.