Unidentified gunmen yesterday seized a restaurant owner in Jolo island, where security forces are battling Abu Sayyaf militants, implicated in a series of terrorism and kidnappings-for-ransom in the southern Philippines, police and military said. Five gunmen snatched Renato Yanga, owner of the Topspot restaurant in downtown Jolo, and then fled on a jeep toward Patikul town, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf militants, officials said. The victim was a relative of the police chief of Zamboanga City, Supt. Mario Yanga, Arab News learned. "We still don't know the motive of the kidnapping, but ransom money is one of the reasons behind the spate of kidnappings in Jolo. Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said. No group claimed responsibility for the latest incident, but suspicion fell heavily on the Abu Sayyaf, which had been behind most of the kidnappings and beheadings in Jolo and nearby Basilan island in the past years. Yanga's abduction was the third in the southern region of Mindanao during four days, raising fears of a new upsurge in kidnappings. On Friday, a Filipino-Chinese businessman was also kidnapped by four unidentified gunmen in the southern city of Cotabato. A day earlier, trader Jamael Rogong was seized in the nearby city of Marawi.