The vicious cycle of kidnapping has to end - Gordon

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today called for an end to the vicious cycle of kidnapping in the country which has fast become a social and economic problem.

Gordon called on the Abu Sayyaf, the New People's Army (NPA) and other rebel groups to release all their reported captives and instead take part in attaining genuine transformation for the country.

"This (abduction incidents) vicious cycle has to end. The kidnapping problem is a social and economic problem that must be resolved immediately. We are thankful and grateful to God and to everybody who helped, that ICRC workers Mary Jean Lacaba and Andreas Notter were already released. But we are still continuing on working and praying for the release of Vagni,"

"But we must not lose sight of the more important fact that not only international aid workers were kidnapped but also poor teachers in Zamboanga and even our police and military forces are taken hostage by the NPA," he added.

Lacaba, Notter, and Vagni are three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who were abducted last Jan. 15 near the provincial jail in Jolo, Sulu where they inspected a humanitarian project.

Lacaba and Notter had been released on April 2 and April 18, respectively. But Vagni, who needs surgical procedure to treat his hernia, has yet to be freed by his captors.

Aside from the ICRC workers, 13 others, six of them teachers, have been reported abducted in Mindanao from Jan. to March this year. The said kidnapping incidents were orchestrated by the Abu Sayyaf alone.

The NPA took captive Private First Class (Pfc) Ronnie Trinidad, of the Philippine Army's 66th Infantry Battalion, in New Bataan, Compostela Valley last April. But the rebel group released him on May 11 for humanitarian reasons after his parents appealed for his immediate release.

Though conceding the importance of keeping communication lines open, Gordon stressed that since kidnapping is both a social and economic problem it is more important to address the root cause, which is the lack of economic opportunities in the Philippines .

"The kidnapping is a social and economic problem. People are sometimes forced into it because of the lack of economic opportunities in our country. People rebel and oppose, and resist because of the injustices, not only physical harm, but also economic harm," he said.

"We must keep the communication lines open and talk to all these abductors. But more importantly, we should solve the bigger problem, the social and economic challenges of our times," he added.