SULU – The Philippine military has virtually allowed Abu Sayyaf militants to escape with their loot following the release of two German nationals in exchange for a huge ransom in the southern Sulu province.
Officials said troops have recovered an abandoned encampment in Patikul town used by the Abu Sayyaf in holding Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71, and Henrike Diesen, 55. Abu Sayyaf spokesman, Aboo Rami, said they freed the two German yachters late Friday after receiving the ransom.
The military also kept the Sulu crisis committee and provincial leaders in the dark as ransom was being delivered to the Abu Sayyaf for the safe release of the Germans. They were recovered by policemen near a checkpoint, but were immediately taken away by soldiers to a military camp in Jolo town.
The Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) which formed a special ad-hoc crisis committee headed by Governor Toto Tan was not even informed by the military of the release of the hostages and no security officials have briefed the PPOC about it.
In a television interview in Manila, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, a military spokesman, insisted the foreigners were freed by their kidnappers due to pressure exerted by security forces – a line which the military have used many times in previous release of foreign hostages by the Abu Sayyaf.
Security forces have not launched an immediate operation against the Abu Sayyaf following the release of the hostages which gave the militants ample time to split into several groups and escaped.
The Abu Sayyaf demanded P250 million ransoms from Germany in exchange for the freedom of the hostages. The militants were returning to the southern Philippines from a failed kidnapping in Sabah in Malaysia when they spotted the yachters and seized them on April 25. The duo was heading to Sabah from a holiday in the Philippines.
The military said the Abu Sayyaf gunmen are hiding in civilian communities and have moved their hostages from different hideouts and making it extremely difficult for security forces to track them down of rescue them.
Another Abu Sayyaf faction also threatened to kill Malaysian fish breeder Chan Sai Chuin, 32, who was kidnapped along with a Filipino worker on June 16 this year from a fish farm in the town of Kunak in Tawau District. The militants are demanding 3 million ringgits (P41 million) for the safe release of the fish breeder.
It is also holding captive a Malaysian policeman Kons Zakiah Aleip, 26, who was seized on June 12 also this year following a clash in Sabah that killed another policeman. The militants are demanding 5 million ringgits (P68.3 million)
The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a 64-year old Japanese treasure hunter Katayama Mamaito, who was kidnapped from Pangutaran Island in July 2010; and two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland, who were taken captive in the coastal village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town in the southern Tawi-Tawi province in 2012.
The Abu Sayyaf group now has hundreds of members in the southern Philippines, particularly in the Muslim autonomous region. The military failed to stop the growing influence and violent campaigns of the militant group because it did not sustain the combat operations needed to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf in the restive region.
The US military is assisting the local military in anti-terrorism operation against the Abu Sayyaf, which recently pledged allegiance to the Sunni jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. (Mindanao Examiner)
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