ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 22, 2014) – Suspected Abu Sayyaf kidnappers have freed a woman after more than a month in captivity, but the rebel group is still holding captive her husband in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, reports said on Saturday.
It said Claire Salinas was released, but the fate of her husband Bonifacio Salinas is still unknown. The couple was seized outside their house in Kasalamatan village in Patikul town on February 16. Both husband and wife work at the Jolo Mainland Water District.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding several hostages, among them two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland who were kidnapped in Tawi-Tawi province on February 2012.
The two foreigners, along with their Filipino guide Ivan Sarenas, 35, were seized at gunpoint by five men in the coastal village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town while taking photographs of wild birds, and handed them over to the Abu Sayyaf. Sarenas managed to escape, but the fate of the two foreigners is unknown. (Mindanao Examiner)
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