| ABU
FREEING THREE MORE MALAYSIANS ZAMBOANGA CITY—Abu Sayyaf terrorists are expected to release today
the three remaining Malaysian hostages to government negotiators.
Their expected
release follows that of the two remaining hostages—both woman teachers—in the
Basilan kidnap crisis also perpetrated by the terrorists.
“We are
about to close the Basilan hostage crisis,” chief government negotiator Robert
Aventajado said as he formally accepted Friday the teachers, Erlinda Manuel, 58, and
Teresita Academia, 39, from their abductors in Patikul, Sulu.
Manuel and
Academia were part of the 77 people seized by the Abu Sayyaf last March 20 in Barangay
Tumahubong, Sumisip town in Basilan.
3 hostages
Meanwhile, the
three Malaysian hostages are to be freed today in an adjacent sitio somewhere in Patikul,
where their four other compatriots were turned over to government negotiators by the group
of Sahirun Radulan.
Aventajado assured
that they are exerting efforts for the release of the other foreign hostages held by the
terrorists since they were kidnapped from the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan Island
off Sabah last April 23.
“We are
exerting our best effort to have everybody released, if possible altogether, but we have
to follow the tempo that the Abu Sayyaf is conducting in releasing the hostages,”
Aventajado told reporters. “We are negotiating with them, we are not dictating.”
The government so
far has succeeded in working for the release of six Malaysians, three Filipinos and a
German woman from the terrorists’ custody.
Reunion
This developed as
the two woman teachers were brought to the Edwin Andrews Air Base in this city for a
reunion with their families yesterday morning.
Aventajado said
Manuel and Academia were freed in exchange for the release of eight members of the family
of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani who were abducted by vigilantes.
The two teachers
told reporters that they were treated well by the terrorists during their l23 days of
captivity.
However, Academia,
who was five months pregnant, said she suffered a miscarriage last week when she slipped
while still in the hands of the terrorists.¨
-- Faber Concepcion
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