ZAMBOANGA CITY – One of two European wildlife photographers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in 2012 in southern Philippines had escaped from his guards – after he killed one of them with a bolo – and recovered Saturday by soldiers battling the terrorist group in Sulu province, Filipino security officials said.
Marine Captain Maria Rowena Muyuela, a spokeswoman for the Western Mindanao Command, said the 49-year old Lorenzo Vinciguerra, from Switzerland, was rescued in the hinterlands of Patikul town. She said Vinciguerra managed to grab the bolo of his guard and killed him, and then escaped until he was rescued by soldiers. She said the foreigner also suffered a cut in the face during the scuffle for the bolo.
She said at least a dozen Abu Sayyaf gunmen under sub-leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan were also killed and wounded in the military operation against the terror group, blamed for the spate of kidnappings and killings. “The military, in coordination with the police, continues to intensify the conduct of law enforcement operations in order to expedite the capture of lawless elements responsible for the series of atrocities in the province,” she said.
Sulu police chief Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita said the slain guard turned out to be Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Juhurim Hussien, who was hacked by Vinciguerra in the neck. “It was Juhurin Hussien, alright, one of the sub-leaders of the Abu Sayyaf,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The fate of his companion, Ewold Horn, 54, from Holland, is still unknown, but police said he is being held by a separate Abu Sayyaf group. Both Horn and Vinciguerra (Vinciguerre in other reports) were kidnapped by five gunmen – believed to be members of the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front – on February 1 in the coastal village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi province.
Their 35-year old Filipino guides Ivan Sadinas and Nestor Cabaluas were also taken by gunmen, but they managed to escape and reported the incident to the police. The foreigners were eventually handed over to the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.
“Troops from Joint Task Group-Sulu while conducting an intensified law enforcement operation rescued one of the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnapped victims, Lorenzo Vinciguerra, in Patikul town,” Muyuela said. “According to Vinciguerra, he took advantage of the situation by escaping from his abductors while the military units are conducting the operation, but he was also shot and wounded by the Abu Sayyaf.”
The Philippine Army said Vinciguerra was airlifted by a military helicopter from Patikul town to a hospital in the town of Jolo where he is recuperating. No other details were made available by the military about Vinciguerre’s condition.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding several foreign hostages and the group has threatened to kill Malaysian fish breeder Chan Sai Chuin, 32, if ransom of 3 million ringgits (P41 million) is not paid by his family. He was kidnapped along with a Filipino worker on June 16 this year from a fish farm in the town of Kunak in Tawau District. And also a 26-year old Malaysian policeman Kons Zakiah Aleip, who was seized on June 12 this year following a clash in Sabah that killed another policeman. The militants are demanding 5 million ringgits (P68.3 million).
Aside from the Malaysians, the militants are still holding a 64-year old Japanese treasure hunter Katayama Mamaito, who was kidnapped from Pangutaran Island in July 2010; and a few Filipinos kidnapped in Zamboanga, Basilan and other areas nearby. The rebels in October freed two German hostages Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71, and Henrike Diesen, 55 in Sulu after receiving P250 million ransoms from Germany in exchange for the freedom of the hostages.
The duo was heading to Sabah in Malaysia on a private yacht from a holiday in Palawan province when militants who were returning to the southern Philippines from a failed kidnapping in Sabah spotted the Germans and seized them on April 25.
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 previously attacked and killed American soldiers in Sulu. (Mindanao Examiner)
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