KIDNAPPERS holding three Red Cross workers may be trying to flee their stronghold in Mindanao, police said yesterday.

Police have set up roadblocks to prevent the kidnappers moving Italian Eugenio Vagni, Andreas Notter of Switzerland, and Filipino Mary-Jean Lacaba off Jolo, a police statement said.

The three were abducted while visiting a jail as part of a Jolo humanitarian mission on Jan. 15.

No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction and it was unclear what the gunmen wanted.

Jolo is the main island in the Sulu group, a lawless, predominantly Muslim province where the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic group that has kidnapped foreigners and bombed Christian targets in the past, operates with several hundred gunmen.

The Red Cross said earlier it had been in contact with the captives by telephone and reported them saying they had not been physically harmed.

It has also appealed to the kidnappers to release the trio.

The police statement said the kidnappers were moving their captives toward coastal villages on the west coast and “allegedly looking for a seacraft [boat].”

Police checkpoints were set up in the area on Thursday “to deter the reported movements of the kidnappers allegedly transferring the victims to [another] place in Sulu via seacraft,” said the statement by regional police commander Bensali Jabarani.

Meanwhile, the military yesterday confirmed that American spy planes are looking for the kidnapped workers.

“Our troops are ready [to launch a rescue],” he said.

“They have a clear idea where to operate, and information gathering is continuous.” AFP with Jaime Pilapil