ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 30, 2014) – Abu Sayyaf militants in southern Philippines on Friday released a Chinese holidaymaker and a Filipina resort worker they kidnapped from a post resort in Malaysia.
The 29-year old Chinese holidaymaker Gao Huayun, and Marcy Dayawan, 40, had been freed in Sulu province, but it was not immediately known from local authorities if ransoms had been paid to the militants, largely blamed by the police and military as behind the spate of kidnappings and terrorism in the southern region.
The kidnappers have originally demanded RM36.4 million ransom or equivalent to almost P500 million for the safe release of the Chinese woman.
Sources told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner in Sulu that a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front, Nameh Sangkula, helped negotiate the release of the hostages in the village of Bawisan in Parang town. It was unknown who tapped Sangkula to secure the freedom of the hostages.
Then victims were fetched by security forces and handed over to Malaysian officials who were in Jolo town. The freed victims were then whisked to a waiting speedboat that brought them to Sabah.
Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said no ransom was paid for the release of the hostages.
The two women were snatched from Singamata Adventures and Reef Resort in the town of Semporna in Sabah on April 2. The victims were first brought by their captors led by Murphy Ladja to the Filipino province of Tawi-Tawi before escaping by boat to Sulu and handed the hostages to another Abu Sayyaf group under Alhabsi Misaya in Mount Taran in Sulu’s Indanan town.
Director-General Datuk Mohammad Mentek, of the Eastern Sabah Security Command, has previously linked the kidnappers to the 2000 kidnappings of 21 mostly European holidaymakers and Asian workers at the Pulau Sipadan resort; and also in the kidnapping in November of a Taiwanese woman on Pom Pom Island, also in Sabah.
Malaysian authorities also said gunmen snatched May 6 a Chinese fish farm manager in Lahad Datu town in Sabah and clashed briefly with pursuing patrol before disappearing into the southern Philippines. At least 5 armed men on a speedboat intruded into the Wonderful Terrace and seized the 34-year Yang Zai Lin after he came out to check the commotion at the farm.
The gunmen, clad in military uniform, first held the farm’s security guard and then captured Yang when he came out. The assailants then sped off leaving the guard behind. It was not immediately known whether the gunmen are members of the Abu Sayyaf group or local gang members with links to the militant group.
Reports said Yang is a native of Guangzhou, but the Chinese Consulate in Kuching in Malaysia claimed Yang is from Guizhou province in southwest China. The latest abduction has forced Sabah authorities to declare curfew and travel restrictions in several areas there.
In November last year, the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped a Taiwanese tourist Chang An Wei, 58, after killing her husband Hsu Li Min, 57, in a daring cross-border raid in Sabah’s Pom Pom Island. The woman was eventually released a month later near the village of Liban in Talipao town in Sulu after paying ransom. The Abu Sayyaf has resorted to ransom kidnappings to raise money for the purchase weapons and fund terror attacks in the Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
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