ZAMBOANGA CITY – After erring on its reports in November, the Philippine military again announced Tuesday that the decomposing body of beheaded Malaysian hostage, Bernard Then, has been found in the southern town of Parang.
Major Filemon Tan, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, said the body was recovered by army soldiers in the village of Lanao Dakula on Monday evening and is now in the custody of the military.
“The decapitated body of Malaysian kidnap victim Bernard Then Ted Fen was recovered by joint elements of 9th Intelligence Service unit and 501st Infantry Brigade at the vicinity of Sitio Lungon-Lungon in Lanao Dakula,” Tan said.
It was not immediately known if the army informed the Malaysian Embassy about the recovery of the body.
The 39-year old Malaysian man from Sarawak in Sabah was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf in the town of Indanan on November 17 after his family failed to pay ransom. Bernard was executed hours after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Bernard’s bloodied head was recovered the same night abandoned in the town of Jolo.
Captain Roy Trinidad, a military spokesman, previously confirmed that troops recovered the headless cadaver from a shallow grave in Indanan’s Kagay village on November 18.
Bernard was kidnapped by armed rebels in May this year along with the 50-year old Thien Nyuk Fun, manager of Ocean King Restaurant in Sandakan town in Sabah, and spirited them to southern Philippines.
Thien was freed by rebels just this month in what Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed was the result of successful negotiations with her captors.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding several foreign hostages, including two Canadians, a Norwegian, an Italian and Filipinos kidnapped from different provinces in southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)
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