Mayor Celso Lobregat, who chairs this city’s Crisis Management Committee, made this confirmation in a press briefing at city hall.
“Contact has been made to the husband in the United States and there is a [ransom] demand,” Lobregat said.
He described the call, which was made on Thursday, as “very short and was cut off right away.”
Lobregat, however, refused to reveal how much the kidnappers have demanded though intelligence reports disclosed that the ransom demand is $10 million.
The victims, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 42, her son, Kevin Eric, 14, both US citizens and a Filipino relative, Romnick Jackaria, 19, were abducted by 14 gunmen at about 3 a.m. Tuesday in barangay Tigtabon, 8.5 kilometers east of this city’s mainland.
“I cannot confirm or deny that [amount],” Lobregat said.
“It is an unbelievable amount,” he added.
Lobregat said search and rescue teams have yet to establish the location of the hostages, addiing “there is no established eyeball contact.”
(Bong Garcia Jr.)
