| ABU MEN
DEMAND P10M FOR TV HOSTAGES RELEASE By
Faber Concepcion
ZAMBOANAGA City–Abu
Sayyaf bandits who seized a television news crew of ABS-CBN Monday in Patikul, Sulu have
demanded a P10-million ransom for their release, an emissary of government negotiators
said yesterday.
Local officials
there also confirmed that three members of evangelist Wilde Almeda’s group remain
missing almost two weeks since they were dispatched by Ghalib Andang or Commander Robot to
deliver a message to emissaries.
Emissaries said
Andang sent the three preachers to deliver his ransom demand to congregation leaders in
Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf
leader had expected them back within a week and has been asking for their whereabouts, the
sources said.
Jesus Miracle
Crusade members still in Jolo could not answer questions about their missing companions.
Even Sulu Governor
Abdusakur Tan, a member of the official government negotiating panel, expressed fear for
the three Almeda disciples.
Tan said that he
was hoping they had opted to remain in Manila, citing lawmen’s apprehension that they
could have been snatched by another armed men.
Residents of Jolo
reportedly told lawmen an armed group, called “the lost command” had beheaded
two still unidentified preachers after they failed to present residency papers. Tan,
however, said probers still have not found a trace of the alleged victims, nor the well
where their remains were reportedly stashed.
ABS-CBN reporters
Val Cuenca and Maan Macapagal were seized by a group led by Commander Muin, and were being
held near where Commander Robot was holding western and Asian hostages from a Malaysian
resort island. Several groups of foreign journalists have been abducted in Jolo while
covering the kidnapping of 21 mostly foreign hostages on April 23 from Malaysia’s
Sipadan diving resort.
Three French TV
journalists are still being held after being seized on July 9 when they visited a rebel
camp to interview the hostages. The rebels also briefly held another group of 10 mostly
German journalists but released them after they paid a $25,000 ransom.
A separate group
of armed men in Jolo is believed to be holding a German reporter for Der Spiegel magazine.
Seminarian
Meanwhile, terror
rocked this city over an early morning abduction attempt at a Catholic seminary here.
Pastor Bonus
Seminary Rector, the Rev. Fr. Aviano Bano, said Brother Rolando Guevarra, 21, a third year
seminarian, managed to escape from an armed band that barged into the facility’s
sleeping quarters around 4:30 a.m. They forced Guevarra into a Tamaraw FX vehicle and sped
towards the East Coast of the city.
with a report from AP
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