Where are the foreign ASG hostages?

From the Manila Bulletin (Feb 25): Where are the foreign ASG hostages?

Amid the election fever, a senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has raised concern over the welfare of at least five foreigners and some Filipinos still in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)  in Sulu.

“I don’t really know for sure, but it seems the government has forgotten the foreign and local hostages,” the MNLF leader, who asked not to be named, asserted.

He said the case of the hostages still being held by the ASG may have been lost in “the ongoing election campaign and the military offensive in Sulu.”

The foreign hostages he was referring to include three foreigners – Canadians John Ridsel and Robert Hall, and Canadian Kjartan Sekkingtad – and a Filipina, Maritess Flor.

 

A Dutch bird watcher, Ewold Horn, is also among the foreign hostages after he and Filipino colleague, Lorenzo Vinciguerra were abducted in Tawi-Tawi four years ago. Vinciguerra has since been able to escape from their captors.

There, too, is Italian Rolando del Torchio, a former priest who now owns a pizza parlor in Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte. He was kidnapped in October last year.

The MNLF leader said he believed that the foreign captives were all with various ASG sub-groups scattered in Sulu and are being dragged around in the jungles as the bandits try to elude relentless military offensives.

ASG sub-leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, whose group is holding the four Samal Island captives, had earlier demanded a P3-billion ransom for the three foreigners, which he later reduced to P900 million.

The source also said the ASG sub-leaders and groups, among them, Al-Habsi Misaya, Sawadjaan, Ilo Group (Orphans’ Group) and Ajang-Ajang recognize senior Radulan Sahiron as their overall chieftain and they share any ransom money they get with him.

The sub-groups are helping each other and they can easily gather some 400 armed fighters combined if they are cornered.

The MNLF leader said a relative of an ASG sub-leader and another source from the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) in Zamboanga City provided him with these details.

He said he spoke with them and asked if there was any ongoing negotiation or effort to secure the hostages’ freedom.

“My friends told me that, at present, there was no negotiation,” the MNLF leader in Sulu said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/where-are-the-foreign-asg-hostages/