Philippines negotiate with Capa's kidnappers

Manila:  Local government officials started negotiating with the kidnappers of a 30-year old-businesswoman who was taken from her family-owned ice plant in the southern Philippines, a regional paper said.

The Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) of Pitogo in Zamboanga del Sur held meetings with their counterparts in nearby Zamboanga Sibugay for the release of Monalisa Capa who was abducted by 10 gunmen from her family-owned ice plant in Pitogo village, Zamboanga del Sur province at 6:30 Saturday afternoon, police director Senior Supt. Jose Bayani Gucela told MindaNews.

Members of Pitogo's MPOC started working closely with their counterparts in Zamboanga Sibugay province following

Gucela quoted reports of eyewitnesses who said that Capa was brought by her kidnappers to Sibugay Zamboanga.

Capa's family also operates a gas station and a fishing trading firm based in Pitogo. The family has not yet received ransom demands from the kidnappers, another source said.

Investigators also eyed reports that Capo's kidnappers were members of one of the kidnap-for-ransom groups that operate in Zamboanga del Sur. No specific group was named.

Last Friday, two suspected members of one kidnap-for-ransom group in the south were arrested at a public market of Malangas town in Zamboanga Sibugay (which is adjacent to Zamboanga del Sur.

The two were allegedly responsible for two kidnapping incidents in Zamboanga City in 2010.

The Abu Sayyaf Group, which is also engaged in kidnap-for-ransom, beheadings, bombings, and other terror activities, operates in Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay as well.

The Abu Sayyaf Group has links with Jemaah Islamiya, the Southeast Asian conduit of the Al Qaida terror network of the late Osama bin Laden.

The Abu Sayyaf Group was established in the south in the late 1900s.