Zambo police release identities of abducted Vietnamese cargo ship crew off Basilan

From the Philippine News Agency (Nov 12): Zambo police release identities of abducted Vietnamese cargo ship crew off Basilan

The Zamboanga police office released on Saturday the identities of the ten Vietnamese cargo ship personnel who were taken a day earlier by heavily-armed Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) brigands off the high seas of Basilan province.

The Vietnamese-flagged cargo vessel hijacked by the gunmen had been towed to the anchorage area of the local port for security reason.

Authorities said the vessel, M/V Royal 16, will stay in the anchorage area until such time replacement crewmen will arrive to operate the ship.

Ten suspected to be ASG bandits hijacked M/V Royal 16 on Friday and seized the ship’s captain and five others, including five officers, near Sibago Island, Mohammad Ajul, Basilan.

The ship, manned by 19 crewmen, is carrying cement and was sailing to Indonesia from Vietnam at the time of the incident.

On Saturday, the local police based on information from the Bureau of Immigration released the identities of the crewmen taken hostage by the bandits.

They included Pham Min Tuan, ship’s captain; Do Trung Hieu; Hoang Vo; Tran Khac Dung; Huang Trung Thong; and, Huang Van Hai.

Ship electrician Pham Van Trong, not Dham Yan Trong as earlier reported, was admitted at a private hospital in this city due to a gunshot wound.

Cmdr. Jerome Cayabyab, Zamboanga coastguard station chief, said the gunmen shot Trong when he ran as they were about to take him along with the other crewmen.

The ASG is long known to be behind the attacks on slow-moving foreign vessels sailing through the waters in southern Philippines.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=939548