MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Authorities have launched an extensive search for a public school teacher reportedly abducted on Saturday in Jolo, Sulu by Abu Sayyaf bandits.
It was only last Monday that relatives of Shariff Benjamin Asamli Ubaid, a resident of Jolo, reported the incident to the local police.
Ubaid, assigned at the Luuk National High School in Luuk town in Sulu, was snatched by gunmen in Jolo on Saturday, according to relatives.
His co-teachers said his family learned of his captivity only after one of the kidnappers called them using his mobile phone urging them to raise money in exchange for his release.
The captors of Ubaid have not set any amount yet for the ransom, police investigators told reporters.
Sulu, touted as the most dangerous province in southern Philippines, is a bastion of the Islamic State-inspired Abu Sayyaf.
Sulu, which has two congressional districts, accounts for most number of deadly clan wars from among ARMM’s five provinces.
More than 20 personnel of the education, health and social welfare departments of ARMM were kidnapped in Sulu in the past five years by Abu Sayyaf gunmen.
Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-ARMM said Tuesday investigators are now trying to determine, along with military intelligence units, the location now of Ubaid and his captors.
He said the Sulu provincial police command is still trying to identify his abductors with the help of local officials.
Lawyer Rasol Mitmug Jr., regional education secretary of ARMM, said he is still waiting for a written report on the kidnapping incident from the provincial office of the Department of Education in Sulu.
Abu Sayyaf members in Sulu have in recent years beheaded more than 20 captives, some of them foreigners snatched in nearby provinces and in island resorts in nearby Malaysia, after their families failed to pay ransom.