ZAMBOANGA CITY – Abu Sayyaf rebels have freed Wednesday a kidnapped Malaysian fish breeder after 6 months in captivity, but the group is still holding a Malaysian policeman in the southern Philippine province of Sulu where ransom negotiations are going on for his freedom.
Chan Sai Chuin was reportedly sneaked out of Sulu on a speedboat by Malaysian negotiators and has returned to Sandakan town in Sabah where his anxious family waited.
There was no immediate statement from the Malaysian Embassy in Manila, but the Philippine military has confirmed the release of the 32-year old Chuin, whose passport name is Kun Mun Hua. He was freed in the village of Tubig Dakula in Indanan town.
The rebels have threatened to kill the Malaysian fish breeder if their 3 million ringgits (P41 million) ransom was not paid by his family.
He was kidnapped along with a Filipino worker on June 16 this year from a fish farm in the town of Kunak in Tawau District. The fate of the unidentified Filipino is unknown.
A student in Jolo town, who was allegedly taken by the Abu Sayyaf, also escaped on December 10 after troops intercepted the 16-year old victim and told security that she managed to flee from her captors.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding the 26-year old Malaysian policeman Kons Zakiah Aleip, who was seized on June 12 this year following a clash in Sabah that killed another policeman. The rebels are demanding 5 million ringgits (P68.3 million).
Aside from the Malaysian policeman, the rebels are still holding captive a 64-year old Japanese treasure hunter Katayama Mamaito, who was kidnapped on Pangutaran Island in July 2010; and a few Filipinos kidnapped in Zamboanga, Basilan and other areas nearby.
The release of the fish breeder occurred despite a massive military campaign in Sulu’s hinterlands where security forces are pursuing the rebels. It was unknown how the Abu Sayyaf managed to evade the military operation and eventually freeing the hostage to Malaysian and Filipino negotiators undetected by authorities.
Just recently, Swiss wildlife photographer Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 49, managed to escape from his Abu Sayyaf captors after killing one of his guards in Sulu’s Patikul town where troops had recovered him. His companion, Ewold Horn, 54, from Holland, remains in captivity. The two men were kidnapped by 5 gunmen – believed to be MNLF members – on February 1, 2012 in the coastal village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi province, and eventually brought to Sulu.
In October last year, the rebels also freed two German hostages Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71, and Henrike Diesen, 55 in Sulu after receiving P250 million ransoms from Germany in exchange for the freedom of the hostages.
The duo was heading to Sabah in Malaysia on a private yacht from a holiday in Palawan province when militants who were returning to the southern Philippines from a failed kidnapping in Sabah spotted the Germans and seized them on April 25. (Mindanao Examiner)
Like Us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindanaoexaminer
Follow Us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MindanaoExamine
Read Our News on: http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/ and http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/
20