ZAMBOANGA CITY – Dr. Daniel Moreno, an internist physician and a resident of Jolo, Sulu, whom the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) kidnapped in Jolo on Feb. 4 is still missing.
Most people in Sulu were asking for the whereabouts of Moreno after learning that the negotiator for his release have allegedly received last Sunday (Feb. 23) R4.5 million from his family.
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chair Yusop Jikiri confirmed on Wednesday that the front has also received a similar report.
Jikiri said the front also received information that allegedly P2 million out of the P4.5 million were “missing plus Dr. Moreno is also missing.”
Adding that the missing amount was reportedly taken by a negotiator operating under the MNLF- Misuari group.
Jikiri said most people in Sulu were in “quandary” as to the “whereabouts of Dr. Moreno and if he is still alive.”
“I suspect Dr. Moreno is no longer in Sulu. The ASG has already moved him out of the province considering that the people of Sulu has failed to see him after the kidnapping incident,” Jikiri said.
He said that most people living in the forested and far flung areas of the province claimed they were not able to see Dr. Moreno, since the time he was kidnapped by the ASG at his clinic on February 4.
Jikiri said the MNLF anti-kidnaping and terrorism task force which he organized is closely monitoring the whereabouts of Dr. Moreno in order for the military to launch a rescue operation to free Dr. Moreno from his captors.
He said the front is also confused as to amount of ransom the ASG is demanding from his family considering that different ransom demand was being floated by his negotiators.
He said “we have heard that the negotiators earlier plan to demand P150 million, some were P50 million, I don’t know which is which is correct, the front is also confused.” (Nonoy E. Lacson)