Abu Sayyaf will be better armed if ransom paid: Mayor
Published on: Tuesday, May 03, 2016
ZAMBONGA CITY: Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin said he is unware of any ransom being paid for the release of 10 Indonesian sailors kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf.However, he said, if the big release came in exchange for money, then those who paid are supporting the rogue Muslim militant group."This money will be used to buy more firearms and will be utilised as mobilisation funds by these criminals," he added.
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A source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak about the matter, said the P50-million ransom was paid. The 10 Indonesians were freed on Sunday after five weeks in captivity, police said. They were abducted on March 26 by gunmen while their tugboat Brahman 12, was transporting coal from Borneo to the Philippines.In a video posted on a Facebook page linked to the Abu Sayyaf, the bandits threatened to kill the sailors unless the ransom was paid by April 8.The Armed Forces of the Philippines refused to deal with the bandits, invoking the government's no-ransom policy. The Abu Sayyaf does not normally free hostages unless a ransom is paid.
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Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesperson for the military's Western Mindanao Command, earlier said intelligence reports had it that the Indonesians were being held by an Abu Sayyaf band led by Alhabshi Misaya.A Philippine Army officer who has been helping to deal with kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf said a rebel commander from the Moro National Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the government, helped negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf for the release of the Indonesians.
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The Indonesians were freed six days after Abu Sayyaf bandits beheaded a Canadian hostage, John Ridsdel. Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was executed on April 25 after a deadline for a P300-million ransom expired. President Aquino on April 27 vowed to "neutralise" the Abu Sayyaf after Ridsdel's severed head was left outside a government building on Jolo.The bandits were still holding 11 other foreign hostages — four Indonesians, four Malaysians, another Canadian, a Norwegian and a Dutchman — and at least one Filipino.The Canadian, Robert Hall, the Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad, and the Filipino, Marites Flor, were seized from yachts in a beach resort on Samal Island, Davao del Sur province, in September last year.The four Indonesians were snatched by speedboat-riding gunmen, who shot another Indonesian sailor as they intercepted two tugboats in waters between Tawi-Tawi and Sabah on April 15.According to the Indonesian foreign ministry, the four Indonesians were taken captive after the gunmen attacked the TB Henry and the TB Cristy, which were sailing to Kalimantan from Cebu.Six other sailors were left behind in one of the tugboats.The Abu Sayyaf, a brutal bandit group, is an offshoot of a Moro separatist insurgency in Mindanao that has claimed more than 150,000 lives since the 1970s. The surge of kidnappings has sparked calls by Indonesia for joint military patrols with Malaysia and the Philippines in the high seas where the Malaysian and Indonesian sailors were seized.In JAKARTA, one of the freed Indonesian sailors told how the militants threatened to slit his throat during. Crew member Julian Philip described how they were taken hostage by eight militants disguised in Philippine police uniforms, who boarded the tug from speedboats and tied up the sailors.The barge was then abandoned, and the Indonesians were taken to an island and divided into two groups. They were moved every few days to avoid the military, which has launched an assault against Abu Sayyaf."We were all stressed out because they frequently threatened to slit our throats," he said.However, Philip added the militants did not harm them and he thought that in reality "they did not want any of us to die as they would not get any money".He said he did not know whether a ransom was paid for their release. "We were just put in a car and sent on our way and told to look for the governor's house," he said. The sailors turned up at the house of a local governor on Jolo, a mountainous and jungle-clad island in the far south of the Philippines that is an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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