In my entry, "Kidnap for Ransom for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part VIII," I discussed six treasure hunters, three South Koreans and three Filipinos whose local guide led them right into a KFR, or, Kidnap for Ransom. The three Koreans:
1) Kim Nam Doo, age 48
2) Woo Seok Bong, age 60
3) In Choi Soo, age 53
checked into the Cagayan de Oro City's Miami Inn, a local hotel in Misamis Oriental Province, on October 20th, 2011. There they rendevouzed with their three local "partners":
1) Junie Ongie, of El Salvador, a municipality in that same province of Misamis Oriental
2) Nestor Modejar, of Barobo, a town in Surigao del Sur Province
and an unnamed third man, reputedly an "engineer" from the municipality of Parang, in Maguindanao Province. The six were met by a Maranaw (Maranaoan) Tribesmen who they had hired as their local guide for the Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental Provincial border region. Arriving at the hotel the guide had unexpectedly brought along two other Maranaw. Together the nine men left and instead of traveling to the borders of Lanao del Norte Province and Misamis Occidental Province, they ended up on the south shore of Lake Lanao, a place rife with KFR activity.
When the Koreans hadn't returned to the Miami Inn by October 31st, its manager reported the men as missing at the CPO, or City Police Office. This was the first authorities had heard of the incident although the kidnappers had been negotiating with the Koreans' families since just after their abduction. Initially demanding a package deal of P50 Million ($1.1 Million) for the three Koreans, calls had come regularly as the families did their best to maintain regular contact, parrying with kidnappers demands. Since the kidnappers had been communicating using their victims' cellphones. Which, unlike nearly all Philippine cellphones, are not prepaid devices, the families were able to use the frequent calls towards their advantage. Soon after receiving the initial telephone calls, two of the Koreans families had immediately gone to their local police stations which in turn almost immediately led to the South Korean Government involving itself. Triangulating (extrapolating) the cellphone signals allowed unofficial South Korean Government "investigators," a euphanism for Intelligence Agents, to zero in on the kidnapper's location, which as suspected, was almost exactly on the south shore of Lake Lanao.
The agents also zeroed in on the kidnappers' negotiator, Jhonny [sic] Tawan-Tawan, the former Mayor of Salvador, a municipality in Lanao del Norte Province, directly abutting the Lanao del Sur border. After learning that the management at the Miami Inn had contacted Philippine authorities the South Korean Government offered to liason with the local authorities handling the case. The actual kidnappers themselves are led by sub-Kumander Pogi of the BIAF, or, Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces as the armed wing of the MILF is known. A member of the 101 Base Command based in the town of Wao in Lanao del Norte Province, Pogi hopes to cash in on all the ransoms being collected by the adjacent 113 Base Command. When a much more reasonable P1 Million ($21,000) was offered in a package deal that would lead to the release of all three Koreans, the Korean Government accepted the terms.
On Thursdat, November 24th, one of the Koreans, Choi In Soo, was released on the border of Barangay Deguyanan in the municipality of Madamba in Lanao del Sur Province and the municipality of Salvador's Barangay Kalimudan in Lanao del Norte Province where the ever helpful ex-Mayor of Salvador, Jhonny Tawan-Tawan delivered a seriously ill Mr.Choi to soldiers from Task Force Ranaw. Choi, suffering for internal bleeding related to a stomach ulcer was rushed to Marawi City, home of the Task Force, where he was immediately operated on. After four hours he was wheeled out and is hopefully well on the road to revocery.
Mr.Choi had been released prior to the ransom handover because of his ill health. His two fellow South Koreans, Mr.Woo and Mr.Kim were released 21 hours later in Salvador, after a soldier from the Task Force delivered the full ransom on behalf of the South Korean Government.
As for the three Filipino captives, Mr.Modejar was executed after five days in captivity although his remains have yet to be recovered. The murder took place after his family truthfully explained that they were peasants and barely had enough money to buy rice each day. As for the other two, they are still being held as their families work to save each of them.
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