| OTHERS
GOES FREE, BUT HE WAITS PATIENCELY FOR HIS SON Malaysian pilot Fong Shaufah has
flown to Jolo almost daily hoping to bring home his 28-year-old son, Ken, but each journey
has proved fruitless
JOLO -- It has been day after day of disappointment for Malaysian pilot Fong Shaufah. The
father of one of the hostages still being held by the Abu Sayyaf rebels, he has been
flying to Jolo almost daily to await the release of his son, Ken.
Capt Fong kept to his mission
of flying the four freed Malaysian hostages from Jolo to Manila last Friday despite the
continued captivity of his 28-year-old son by the Muslim rebels.
He has been flying regularly in
and out of Jolo from the southern Philippines city of Zamboanga with co-pilot John Leong,
hoping to take the remaining Malaysian hostages home.
"I feel happy. I am very
emotional as I have not seen my son for a long time,'' he said last Friday morning, when a
journalist told him that his son was among those to be freed.
"Sometimes I believe and
disbelieve that my son would be released, but this time I believe. There is no reason not
to believe.''
But the pilot's joy turned to
disappointment upon arrival at Jolo airport as his son was not among those released.
"I am disappointed,'' was
all he said to journalists waiting outside the military camp, adding that he remained
optimistic that his son and other remaining Malaysian hostages, Basilius Jim and Kua Yi
Loong, would be freed soon.
Philippine government
negotiators said the kidnappers were supposed to free the remaining Malaysians on Monday,
but the plan has hit an unknown snag and an emissary has been dispatched to the jungle
hideout of Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang.
Sources close to the
negotiations said the kidnappers were holding out for additional cash of up to US$1.36
million (S$2.38 million).
Separately, the Abu Sayyaf
rebels have abducted a two-member Filipino television crew in Jolo island, adding to the
31 hostages they are already holding, police said yesterday.
The Abu Sayyaf faction led by
Muhin Abdullah are demanding 10 million pesos (S$400,000) for Val Cuenca and his wife Maan
Macapagal, a government emissary who visited the kidnappers' hideout told reporters.
The couple were held after they
interviewed senior Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sajiron for ABS-CBN television, provincial
police chief Candido Casimiro said.
Sajiron had denied that his men
kidnapped the two and blamed bandits. --The Star/Asia News Network, AFP
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