Gunmen seized two workers of local lending company on Tuesday in southern Philippine province of Basilan in the latest series of abduction in the Mindanao region, the police said Wednesday.
The victims, Lea Patris and Ammad Sali, both employees of KFI lending Company were on their way home to Maluso township on board a motorcycle around 6:00 p.m. when they were flagged down and forcibly taken by armed men at gunpoint at the highway in Sumisip, said Superintendent Danilo Bacas, a regional police spokesperson.
A third companion of the victims, Nasrah Mudjain, was able to escape from their captors, Xinhua reported.
"The three had just finished collecting payments of their clients and were on their way back home when the incident happened, " Bacas said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest abduction incident but Basilan is a known bailiwick of Abu Sayyaf militants.
On Monday, gunmen seized a Filipino-Chinese trader in Sulu Island.
Diokhing Que, in his 60s, was on his way home from his store at the public market of Jolo Island around 5:30 p.m. when four armed men believed to be members of Al-Qaeda affiliated Abu Sayyaf snatched him at gunpoint in the village of Kakuyangan.
Aside from Mr. Que, kidnappers are also holding nine-year-old boy Chester Gruta, who was kidnapped in Lamitan City in Basilan Island, 45-year-old midwife Elizar Gomera, three state teachers and three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross they kidnapped early this month in the Island of Sulu.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen claimed that they are holding the three international aid workers and is now open to negotiate, with Vice President Noli de Castro as head of the government emissary.
The Abu Sayyaf is a rebel group with some 380 members blamed for a series of kidnappings and terror attacks in the Southeast Asian country, including the bombing of a ferry near Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.