Kidnap of M’sian sailors signals rising piracy threat in South Philippine waters

From Today (Apr 4): Kidnap of M’sian sailors signals rising piracy threat in South Philippine waters

Expert says men were likely abducted by a group working with the notorious Abu Sayyaf

The fate of four Malaysian sailors who were kidnapped off a tugboat remains unknown, with the authorities no closer to opening lines of communications with the kidnappers.

Sabah police chief Abdul Rashid Harun said yesterday that the authorities have not been contacted by the kidnappers. “There are no developments,” he said in a WhatsApp message.

The seizure of the four sailors on Friday night by eight armed men near Ligitan, a small island off the eastern coast of Sabah, was the latest in a series of kidnappings in the lawless waters and coastlines of the southern Philippines in the past year.

 

The four Malaysian men from Sarawak are Wong Teck Kang, 31, Wong Hung Sing, 34, Wong Teck Chii, 29, and Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21.

They were part of a nine-member crew on a tugboat travelling from Manila to Malaysia, but the kidnappers released the other five, comprising Indonesians and Myanmarese.

The Malaysian government is reportedly contemplating suspending trade and movements of essential goods from the east coast of Sabah to the southern Philippines.

More than 18 foreign citizens are being held in the southern Philippines by kidnap-for-ransom groups pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS), said the Philippine military.

A spokesman for the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, Charles Jose, said yesterday that Manila was in the process of verifying the abduction. Colonel Restituto Padilla Junior, a spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, also said yesterday that the military was working with Malaysian officials to investigate the incident.

On March 26, armed men in a speedboat kidnapped 10 Indonesian sailors from a tugboat near the same area of the south-western Philippines. The Indonesian police said later that the kidnappers had contacted the Indonesian owner of the vessel and made ransom demands.

Mr Marc Singer, a director with Pacific Strategies & Assessments, a risk mitigation firm that tracks insurgent groups in the Philippines, said both recent abductions were probably the work of a criminal organisation called the Muktadir group.

“The Muktadir family has been engaged in piracy, gunrunning and human trafficking in the waters off the southern Philippines for generations and in recent years, effectively served as subcontractors for the Abu Sayyaf group,” said Mr Singer, referring to a notorious militant organisation in the region.

The Muktadir group has the fastest speedboats in the area and often commits abductions and then hands over the victims to Abu Sayyaf, which handles ransom negotiations, said Mr Singer. Several members of the group have outstanding arrest warrants for kidnapping in the Philippines and Malaysia.

In September, Abu Sayyaf abducted two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipino from a resort in the southern Philippines. The group has released videos demanding ransom payments in return for the hostages’ release.

 

In the past year, Abu Sayyaf has pledged allegiance to IS, but the Philippine military has said that the group does not receive direct support from the international terror organisation and operates more as a criminal gang than as ideologically driven rebels.

The Philippine government signed a preliminary peace deal in 2012 with the country’s largest Muslim insurgency group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but the deal did not include Abu Sayyaf and other smaller groups opposed to the agreement.

The peace deal was structured to increase investment and to channel tax revenue to the southern Philippines in order to reduce poverty, which government officials say helps rebel groups recruit fighters.

The peace deal, which President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines has said is one of his top priorities, has stalled in the country’s legislature and is not expected to be passed before Mr Aquino leaves office at the end of June.

http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/kidnap-msian-sailors-signals-rising-piracy-threat-south-philippine-waters