Gao Huayun / Image via wordpress.com
Abu Sayyaf bandits have brought a Chinese tourist and a Filipino hotel receptionist to their jungle stronghold in southern Philippines after kidnapping the women from a dive resort in eastern Malaysia early this month, security officials said Friday.
The Philippine officials said that based on numerous intelligence reports and accounts from villagers, the women were now being held by Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the province of Sulu, where the extremists have been holding several foreign and Filipino hostages for ransom.
The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters about the abductions.
Kidnapped from the Singamata Reef Resort in Sabah on April 2 were the 28-year-old Shanghai woman identified as Gao Huayun and 40-year-old Filipino Marcelita Dayawan.
The Abu Sayyaf gunmen then took them by motor boat to Sulu. Sabah, which has many tourist resorts, is just a short boat ride from the Philippines, where many bandits and kidnap gangs operate.
Philippine military officials initially reported that the kidnappers and their captives may have been taken to Simunul island in the southernmost province of Tawi-Tawi. But a search in the remote region yielded nothing.
Marine spokesman Captain Ryan Lacuesta said a new search was underway by government forces in Sulu, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of Manila, but refused to divulge other details.
Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid said two weeks ago that the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of P500 million ($11.3 million) for the release of a Chinese tourist. No ransom was asked for the Filipino woman, he said.
Malaysian police have been coordinating with their Philippine counterparts to deal with the kidnapping, the latest the Abu Sayyaf has staged in Malaysia.
In 2000, Abu Sayyaf gunmen snatched 21 European tourists and Malaysian and Filipino workers from Malaysia's Sipadan diving resort. The hostages were transported to Sulu, where they were released in exchange for huge ransom.
In November, Abu Sayyaf bandits killed a Taiwanese tourist and kidnapped his wife from another Sabah resort. The woman was free a month later in Sulu.
The Abu Sayyaf had links to international militant networks, including al-Qaeda, but a US-backed Philippine military crackdown has weakened it considerably in recent years.
The group, which is on the US list of terror groups, has about 300 fighters and is now much more focused on ransom kidnappings than global jihad.
http://www.eturbonews.com/45086/officials-kidnapped-tourist-taken-jungle-stronghold-southern-phi
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