ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 8, 2012) – A leader of a former Muslim rebel group which signed a peace deal with Manila has been tagged as behind the kidnappings of a Dutch and a Swiss wildlife photographers in the remote southern province of Tawi-Tawi.
A senior military official, quoting an intelligence report, said Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, of Switzerland, are being held by a commander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) for ransom and the negotiations are going on for the safe release of the foreigners.
“We have reports pointing to an MNLF commander and his group as behind the kidnapping of Horn and Vinciguerre who are being held for ransom in Tawi-Tawi,” the official, who asked not to be named, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He did not say how much ransoms the kidnappers are demanding, but Sadikul Sahali, the provincial governor, is negotiating with the gang for the release of the foreigners.
Five gunmen seized the two photographers along with a Filipino guide, Ivan Sarenas, 35, who managed to escape from the gang in the town of Panglima Sugala. Police said the foreigners, who arrived in the province late last month, were taking photographs of wild birds when gunmen seized them on February 2.
Police also said a local gang is holding Horn and Vinciguerre. “They were abducted by locals and not the Abu Sayyaf,” said Senior Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, the provincial police chief, when asked by reporters if the al-Qaeda-linked terror group was behind the abduction.
“They are still here in Tawi-Tawi and the operation is continuing and we wanted this problem resolve as soon as possible,” he said in a separate interview.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but authorities initially suspected the Abu Sayyaf as behind it. The militant group is known to operate in the province where they kidnapped a Malaysian fish trader Pang Choon Pong in October last year and is still being held in captivity.
Abu Sayyaf militants also kidnapped two Malaysian seaweed farm workers Vui Chung, 42, and his cousin Lai Wing Chau, 33, in Tawi-Tawi in February 2010 and were freed later in the same year after their families paid some 2 million ringgits.
The group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya had also kidnapped 21 mostly Western holidaymakers in Sabah’s resort island of Sipadan in 2001 and brought them by boat to the southern Philippines. The hostages were then ransomed off to Malaysia and Libya – which negotiated for their release – for millions of dollars.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding another Malaysians, a Japanese man, an Indian national married to a Filipina, an Australian citizen and three Filipinos in the restive southern region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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