Gunmen seize five engineers

Gunmen seize five engineers

ISABELA, Philippines (Reuter): Forty gunmen seized five
geodetic engineers in the southern Philippines after freeing
unharmed three suspected military informants they had abducted
earlier, the military said yesterday.

The victims were taken by 40 armed men on Friday from a house
in Sumisip town on Basilan island, where they had been conducting
a survey for the Department of Agrarian Reform.

The motive for the kidnapping was not immediately known.
Earlier, the same armed group freed unharmed three Moslems they
suspected of helping government forces locate the hideouts of
rebels during an army operation on Basilan, 900 kilometers south
of Manila.

The three were released after negotiations between the
kidnappers and relatives of the victims, police in the Basilan
capital of Isabela said. They said they did not know if any
ransom was paid.