An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had an emotional reunion with his son Nuraldin after gunmen freed the youngster from a month's captivity. Comelec commissioner Elias Yusoph and his wife were reunited with Nuraldin at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 1 P.M. Tuesday, a radio dzBB report said. Nuraldin, 22, was abducted last June 20 while praying inside a mosque in Marawi City. The kidnappers demanded new elections in five southern towns, officials said Tuesday. The abduction led to clashes last week between troops and gunmen that killed a suspected kidnap gang leader. The father, one of the country's six election commissioners, had accused the military of not doing enough to free his 22-year-old son and threatened to retaliate against the kidnappers. Nuraldin was freed Monday on an isolated road outside southern Cagayan de Oro City, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Romeo Lustestica said. No ransom was paid, said Jesus Dureza, chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority who helped in the negotiations. The military said the kidnappers had been talking directly to Yusoph's family. It was not clear what prompted the high-profile kidnapping, but the gunmen had demanded that the results of May 10 elections in five southern towns be nullified, which was rejected by the Commission on Elections. “I have not done anything wrong or I have not oppressed people. [Likewise] I am not indebted to people. So my only surprise is why involve my son?” the older Yusoph said. Yusoph said that in his 32 years working as a Marawi city prosecutor, a post he hold before he became a Comelec official, he has never made unfair recommendations against people faced with charges. He said he has “filed cases against untouchable people.” Moments before his son's arrival in Manila, Yusoph was puzzled as to why his son had to be snatched to protest election results in Lanao del Sur, he said in an interview at the airport. Although a ranking official in the poll body, Yusoph said his son's abductors should not gang up on his family if they have election-related grievances. “I am only one in the Commission. We decide on the merits,” said Yusoph, who became a Comelec commissioner in March 2009 to replace retired commissioner Resureccion Bora. Yusoph will serve until February 2015. Yusoph suspected that the people behind his son's abduction were local candidates. “But I don't want to divulge [their identities] because it is still under investigation,” he said. Before his son's release, Yusoph had been appealing to negotiators not to pay any amount of money for his son's rescue. “I told them not a single centavo has to be offered to this people. They should face and suffer the punishment,” he said.
