Kota Kinabalu: State police have received a phone call informing them that the latest cross-border kidnap victims – all Filipinos holding IMM13 documents that allow them to work in Sabah – are safe.Police Commissioner Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun declined to give details, saying police are still trying to verify the call."We need to determine if the call was from the kidnappers or anyone who was trying to take advantage (of the situation)," he said.
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He said the call was made from the Philippines, saying that the kidnapped victims are currently held in the southern part of the country and safe.Three fishermen were kidnapped by a group of armed men near Pom Pom island/Kulapuan, off Semporna, last Saturday.
They were identified as Masurin a skipper in his 50s and two boat crew Loloi Alpin and Sami, both in their 30s.Several kidnappings had been reported in waters off the east coast of Sabah over the past months.
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The latest case just a month after an Indonesian skipper of a trawler boat was reported to have been taken hostage by a group of armed men in Kertam waters, off Kuala Kinabatangan in Sandakan early August.A month earlier, three Indonesians were abducted from a trawler in Lahad Datu waters near Sinakut just weeks after four Sarawakian sailors were released by Abu Sayyaf gunmen.
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To a question, Abdul Rashid said he still see curfew as an effective measure to prevent kidnapping in the east coast despite the latest abduction.
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However he admitted the big challenge faced by security agencies considering that there are over 300 islands and reefs where kidnappers could be.He again called for cooperation among tugboat and fishing boat onwers to install the Automatic Identification System (AIS).
