ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 28, 2014) – Abu Sayyaf militants have freed Wednesday a kidnapped Filipina trader in the southern province of Sulu after three months on captivity, police said.
Police said the 33-year old Sugar Diane Buenviaje was released in the town of Jolo where her sister waited and took a plane bound for Zamboanga City. It was unknown how much ransom her family paid the kidnappers.
Buenviaje was kidnapped in February in Mapun town in Tawi-Tawi province where her family owns Cagayan Enterprises and General Merchandise.
Police tagged the group of Alhabsi Misaya was behind Buenviaje’s kidnapping. Misaya’s group is believed to be holding the 29-year old Chinese holidaymaker Gao Huayun, 29, and Filipina Marcy Dayawan, 40, who were kidnapped 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 Tawi-Tawi before escaping by boat to Sulu and handed the hostages to Misaya, who was also tagged as behind the series of bombings in Sulu in recent years.
Misaya has demanded P500 million ransom in exchange for the safe release of the Chinese woman. It was unknown whether Buenbiaje was held together with the Chinese and Filipina woman or not.
The Abu Sayyaf was largely blamed for the daring raid on the posh Pulau Sipadan resort in 2000 where they kidnapped 21 people and ransomed them off to Malaysia and Libya for at least $25 million.
In November, the Abu Sayyaf 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)
20