MANILA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A Filipino fish farmer from a village in Zamboanga Sibugay province in the southern Philippines has been abducted by six unknown gunmen clad in military uniform, police said on Monday.
Police said the victim, Alejandro Caluno Bation, 58, of Kabasalan town, was watching the television inside his house when kidnappers armed with long and short firearms barged into his house and snatched him around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, police said.
The victim's two adult sons and a fishpond worker who were watching television with him witnessed the crime when the armed kidnappers forcibly dragged the victim to a wharf and boarded a get-away motorized pump boat, police said.
The armed men then fled towards the coastal waters of Naga and Payao towns.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, police said, adding that an investigation is underway and that a manhunt operation has already been launched to find the missing trader.
Kidnap-for-ransom is not uncommon in southern Philippines. Sporadic incidents of kidnapping by militant groups, including the Abu Sayyaf Group, have been reported since the 1990s.
The group is holding a number of foreign and Filipino hostages in various remote camps in the boondocks of Sulu, Basialan and Tawi-Tawi provinces off Mindanao Island.