Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines joined state security forces in pursuing the gunmen who seized a Filipino-Chinese trader Monday.

“Our men on the ground are monitoring the incident. We will relay to government authorities whatever information we have from our end,” Von Al Haq, spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said Tuesday in an interview.

Armed with rocket propelled grenades and automatic rifles, gunmen seized Nestor Tay at gun point from his New Asian Marketing establishment Monday afternoon in this southern Philippine city.

Al Haq added that MILF members are not involved in the kidnapping.

“We are not involved. Anybody can own a rocket propelled grenade launchers. Not only us. The military and local armed groups own such kind of weapon,” Al Haq said.

Witnesses saw the kidnappers clad in fatigue uniforms arrived at the scene and then disarmed two security escorts of the store before going to the office of their primary target. Kidnappers ordered store workers to duck while they were dragging Tay into a waiting getaway L-300 van and sped off towards unknown direction.

Japal Guiani Jr., mayor of this city, said the abductors’ vehicle was recovered by police and military. No group claimed responsibility for the incident.

Last year, a number of Filipino-Chinese were abducted by a kidnap-for-ransom gang in this city. The Philippine military blamed “Pentagon,” a kidnap-for-ransom gang for a string of previous kidnapping cases in the southern region of Mindanao. The group first gained notoriety on Oct. 17, 2001, when it abducted Italian priest Guissepe Pierrantoni on his mission in Zamboanga del Sur province. Pierrantoni was released on April 8, 2002 after six months in captivity.

The gang was also said to be behind the abduction of four Chinese engineers working on an irrigation project in Carmen, North Cotabato nine years ago. Two of the engineers were killed during a botched military operation.