Snatched Chinese a ‘struggling trader’

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The Abu Sayyaf Group in Sulu may be thinking it has netted a big fish.

But Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, police chief for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the Muslim extremists’ latest kidnap victim, Hili Wu alias Peter Go, "is not a rich man."

"He is simple businessman trying out his luck in Sulu," he said.

Senior Superintendent Jularisim Kasim, police chief for Sulu, said police recently discovered that the victim is not a Tausug-Chinese but a 19-year-old Chinese national from Fujian, China.

The victim was reported to have arrived in the island province in July 2007.

"The Wus have a business here. They own a store selling electrical items and appliances," Kasim said.

Hili's father, Jetli, manages the business.

Hili was snatched by at least five armed men in the village of Walled City in the capital town of Jolo last Saturday.

The kidnapping happened two days after Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro went to Sulu to visit government troops.

"President Arroyo gave an explicit instruction to get to the root of kidnapping activities, to flesh them and root them out and to protect the people so they can go on with their lives," Teodoro told soldiers during his visit.

A day after Teodoro's visit, Pakkam Hasim, principal of Kutah Sairap Elementary School, was abducted by three unidentified men in Wanni Piyanjihan village in Parang town.

Two days later, Hili Wu was abducted.

In Hasim's case, Jabarani said, the abduction might have something to do with family feud, police said. (By Julie Alipala; INQ.net)