Abu Sayyaf frees 2 Indonesians, 1 Filipino

From The Gulf Today (Dec 14): Abu Sayyaf frees 2 Indonesians, 1 Filipino

The Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terror group released three hostages - two Indonesian crewmen of a tugboat and a Filipino businesswoman - due to the strong pressure arising from what the military claimed was the intensified “search and destroy operation” launched against them by government forces.

Major Filemon Tan, the spokesman of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, identified the two freed Indonesian hostages as Mohammad Nazer, 62, and Robin Peter, 32, who were already turned over to the Indonesian embassy in Manila.

Tan said Nazer and Peter were the last two of the seven crewmen abducted by the Abu Sayyaf from an Indonesian tugboat while sailing off the Sulu Sea on June 22.

He disclosed the extremists turned over the two Indonesian hostages to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the town of Patikul, Sulu on Monday but admitted he was not aware that a ransom has been paid.

However, Tan pointed out their release resulted from the intensified campaign launched by government forces against the Abu Sayyaf on orders of President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte.

In a related development, an official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reported that a group identified with the Abu Sayyaf freed Filipino businesswoman Clarita Belisario who was kidnapped while tending to her gasoline station in the town of Linamon, Lanao del Sur in September.

Jam Dimaporo revealed that Belisario was released after her family paid $3,400 to the abductors representing the fee for her “board and lodging” while in captivity, a euphemism for ransom.

With the release of the two Indonesians, meanwhile, Tan said the Abu Sayyaf are still holding a total of 23 foreign hostages, composed of six Vietnamese sailors, five Malaysians, four Indonesians, one Dutch, one German and one Korean.

The Abu Sayyaf has gained notoriety through a spate of kidnap-for-ransom cases that were often marred by the beheading of their foreign and Filipino hostages.

Among their latest foreign hostages beheaded this year were two Canadian nationals for their reported failure to pay the huge ransom demanded for their release.

The two Canadians were abducted along with a Norwegian national and their Filipina companion while on a holiday on a posh island resort in Mindanao in late October 2015.

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