22 July 2000 - The Manila Times

By Manny B. Marinay and Faber Concepcion

GOVERNMENT negotiators and foreign envoys welcomed in Manila yesterday four tired but joyful Malaysians freed by the Abu Sayyaf after more than three months of captivity in the jungles of Patikul, Sulu.

Even as officials expressed optimism for the swift release of other hostages in Patikul, rebels were preparing to free the last two teachers seized during a raid on a Basilan Catholic school last March.

Aventajado, in an interview with reporters, was quick to say that there was no ransom paid for the release of the hostages.

The four Malaysians were freed around 5:30 a.m. yesterday somewhere in a remote coastal village in Patikul town. They were handed over to negotiators’emissaries Hadji Mamie Sangkula, Hadji Aksa and Hadji Jamil Hassan.

A chopper whisked them to the Jolo airport, where they boarded a Malaysian registered Super King aircraft BE 200 with markings 9M-KNS for their flight to Manila.

Freed were Lee Hok Liong, 20; Francis Masangkin, 29; Balu Khrishnan Nair, and Vincent Kwong, all from Sabah, Malaysia, and workers at the Sipadan resort. They were brought to Villamor Air Base around noon yesterday and were expected to see President Estrada in Malacañang.

Teachers

In Basilan, radio station dxRZ Agong interviewed rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya and teachers Erlinda Manuel and Teresita Academia.

Sabaya said the teachers would be freed in the afternoon. He asked local education department officials to transfer the teachers to other places of assignment and to give them back wages.

The teachers said they were healthy and had been fed well.

“They give us vitamins and chicken,” Academia said in the chavacano dialect of the Zamboanga peninsula.

However, Manuel, who was five months pregnant when the abductions took place, suffered a miscarriage while still in Basilan.

“I’m alright now,” she said. “My husband should not be worried about me as we will  be freed soon.”

Happy

On hand to meet them in Manila were government chief negotiator Robert Aventajado, Malaysian Ambassador M.H. Arshad, and former Libyan envoy Azarouk.

The four–fatigued, unwashed, and carrying their possessions in rice sacks—were clearly tired but jubilant as Aventajado presented to Arshad.

“I’m so happy, and what I want now is to meet my family as soon as possible,” said Francis Masangkin, one of the four hostages who spent more than three months with Abu Sayyaf rebels in the mountains of Sulu.

Aventajado acknowledged the participation of Le Peng Wee, an ethnic Chinese friend of President Estrada, in the release efforts.

The negotiator’s statement ended speculations of a feud between the two men, reportedly struggling for command of the hostage situation.

Arshad thanked the Estrada administration but said celebrations have to wait until all hostages are released.

Jolo scene

“We’re happy,” the hostages said as they were taken to the airport on Jolo island, accompanied by Brig. Gen. Guillermo Ruiz (ret.), Datu Yong Lee and Datu Abdulzis Yusop Hamdaini. 

The aircraft was piloted by Malaysian Capt. Fong Leonh Shau Fah—the father of one of the hostages still being held in Sulu—and second officer Capt. Leomh Tze Cahau.

In Manila, Fong said he thought his son, Ken Fong Yin, was among those freed. While expressing great disappointment, Fong said he feels neither regret nor condemnation towards the Philippines or Malaysia.

The freed captives were met at the Jolo airport by Sulo Governor Abdusakur Tan, Datu Aziz Shamsudin, consultant and representative of Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohammad; and Datu Yong Leong, Sabah’s chief minister.

The four were part of a group of 21 mostly foreign hostages kidnapped April 23 from the Sipadan Island diving resort by Abu Sayyaf rebels.

The other day, however, Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said the foreigners were originally kidnapped by Malaysian bandits and turned them over to the Jolo-based Muslim bandits.

Six Malaysians and one German woman from the “Sipadan” group have now been released.

Three detained

Reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo said the foreigners were turned over around 8 a.m. yesterday in Zamboanga City by the emissary to businessman Lee Peng Wee, a former adviser of  Mr. Estrada.

The emissary took the four Malaysians from the Abu Sayyaf’s hideout to a nearby location to wait for the other three hostages he asked the kidnappers to release but to no avail.

The rebels had earlier promised to also free three other Malaysians, but refused to turn them over Thursday.

This was attributed to the disagreements among the rebel leaders over how to divide up the ransom.

The remaining three Malaysians are reportedly now being held by a different Abu Sayyaf commander.

The Abu Sayyaf has several hundred heavily armed rebels who are divided into several bands led by at least five separate commanders.

The final decision to free only the four hostages reportedly came from Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, whose band holds most of the captives.

No ransom

Government authorities said no ransom was paid for the release of the four foreign nationals. Likewise, the Malaysian government strongly denied paying any ransom for the earlier release of  two of its nationals — Zulkarnian bin Hashim and Abdul Salawat— who were among the 21 originally abducted on Sipadan Island.

The release of the Malaysian hostages was originally scheduled on Monday, together with German tourist Ranate Wallert, but was reset for Wednesday due to a last minute demand by the rebels for a larger ransom.

The Abu Sayyaf terrorists increased their demand from P3 million for each Malaysian to P15 million ($67,500)  for a total ransom of P105 million.

The rebels are demanding $1 million for the release of each European hostage, negotiators say. The government has an official no-ransom policy, but negotiators have confirmed that ransoms were paid for the two Malaysian hostages who were earlier released.

There were also reports that the Jolo-based bandits called off the scheduled release of the seven Malaysians on Wednesday after learning that another kidnapping group in Sulu was planning to snatch from them their foreign captives.

The report prompted the kidnappers to take back the hostages to their jungle hideout.

Kidnapping, releases

Since abducting the 21 hostages from the Sipadan resort, the Abu Sayyaf rebels have also kidnapped 13 Filipino Christian evangelists and three French TV journalists. A separate armed group on Jolo is believed to be holding a German reporter for Der Speigel magazine.

A series of releases in the past week has raised hopes for an early resolution of the hostage crisis, but reports of disputes among the Abu Sayyaf leaders have tempered that optimism.

Tensions also erupted Thursday within the government negotiating team, with Aventajado accusing Lee Peng Wee, a former presidential adviser with business interests in Malaysia, of violating instructions and endangering the talks. He also ordered a check of the immigration records of several Malaysians who are helping Wee to negotiate.

“We’ve been waiting for three months,” said Yong Peck Lee, former chief minister of Malaysia’s Sabah state who said he is helping Wee in a private capacity. “I’m here to see how we can bring our people home.”

Malacañang welcomed the release of the four Malaysians.

“We are hopeful in the next few days we may have a breakthrough,” Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said.

On Thursday, the rebels released the son of a soldier who was killed in a clash with the guerrillas.

The boy, Richard Sintos, 17, was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf on nearby Basilan island after his father was killed by the rebels.

Aventajado said he expects two female teachers abducted from a Basilan school on March 20 will also be released soon.

The remaining hostages consist of six French, three Germans, two Finns, two South Africans, 17 Filipinos and three Malaysians.

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