Abu Sayyaf gunmen release teacher abducted in Sulu

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Abu Sayyaf gunmen set free before dawn Tuesday a Tausug public school teacher they had snatched in Sulu over the weekend.

Lawyer Rasol Mitmug,  Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Education-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said at noon Tuesday that high school teacher Shariff Benjamin Asamli Ubaid is now with his family after three days of captivity.

"I received information from provincial education officials in Sulu that the kidnapped teacher has been released," said Mitmug.

Ubaid, a teacher in the Luuk National High School in Luuk town in Sulu, reportedly told investigators that his abductors were members of an Abu Sayyaf group holding out in Patikul, where many of those abducted by the Abu Sayyaf are kept.

Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-ARMM said the victim was abducted Saturday afternoon in Barangay Latih in Patikul near Jolo, capital town of Sulu province.

“He was flagged down by armed men while on his way to a bakery there, blindfolded and brought somewhere else. One of his abductors called his relative using his mobile phone to ask for ransom,” Mijares said.

The Sulu provincial police and units of the Western Mindanao Command launched a search for Ubaid on Monday when his family reported the abduction.

His family is rumored to have paid a ransom of P200,000 for his release.

Mijares said probers are still validating the alleged payment of ransom to the kidnappers.

"The government doesn’t allow that. We are to verify that yet," he said.

DepEd officials in Sulu also reportedly helped pressure Ubaid's captors to let him go.