DepEd chief appeals for Basilan school principal's release

Education Secretary Armin Luistro on Tuesday appealed to the abductors of a school principal in Basilan province for her unconditional release. Luistro made the appeal a week after unidentified men abducted Cecilia Sosas, principal of Baas Elementary School in Lamitan City in Basilan. "Sec. Luistro strongly appeals for the immediate & unconditional release of Principal Cecilia Sosas who was abducted in Basilan last Nov 15," the Department of Education (DepEd) said on its Twitter account. Unidentified men abducted Sosas and teacher Merlyn Yacapin from the school last week, but Yacapin was abandoned. The incident prompted a Mindanao-based Catholic bishop to voice disgust over the successive kidnapping incidents in the region. Isabela (Basilan) Bishop Martin Jumoad said that while atrocities are common in his province, recent kidnappings indicate authorities are helpless against criminal gangs. “Kidnapping is very common here in Basilan. It means to say that the government can’t do anything in order to stop terrorism here ... I thought the problem can somehow be resolved by the Aquino government but it seems that the volume of kidnapping here has increased," he said in an interview on Church-run Radio Veritas last week. Excerpts of the interview were posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines news site. “I continue to appeal to the government to really do their work and the military and the police to stop the proliferation of arms," Jumoad said. “I hope that there will be a day or in the future they no longer be afraid to go around and we have peace here in Basilan," he added. - KBK, GMANews.TV