Families praying for crewmen’s safe return
- THE STAR
SIBU: It was a sleepless night for the families of the four Sarawakian crewmen who were kidnapped by Filipino gunmen on Friday night.
They are praying for their safe return.
The four are brothers Wong Teck Pang, 31, and Wong Teck Chi, 29, their cousin, Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, and Wong Hung Sing, 34, who isn’t a relative.
The kidnapping has occurred at an especially difficult time for one of the families.
Just 10 days ago, Teck Pang’s wife delivered their second son. Still in confinement, his wife is depending on his parents to look after the older boy, who is just three years old.
Wong Chie Ming, 55, said they could not sleep the whole night after hearing the devastating news from a friend that his two sons had been kidnapped by armed men from their boat.
“He called us at about 8.30pm last night (Friday) to relay the news.
“All we could do now is to pray for their safe return,” said the senior Wong who operates a fishing trawler.
He said no one knew where his sons and the others had been taken to.
Apart from that phone call, they also received calls from the police and the shipping company, which has its headquarters in Miri.
“They came back from work during the Chinese New Year celebrations. That was the last time we saw them,” said Chie Ming, who has two other sons and a daughter.
Teck Chi is single and the two brothers have been working for the same company for more than a year.
Tommy Lau, 27, the elder brother of Johnny, lodged a report at the central police station here at about 2.30pm yesterday.
Working for the same company, he said he was supposed to be on this trip but he had swapped places with Johnny.
Recalling the last telephone call from Hung Sing, his brother Hung Siong said he telephoned him at around 7am on Friday.
“He told me that he was on his way to Sabah and wanted me to reload his handphone. After hearing the news, I tried to call him but failed to get through,” said Hung Siong, 29, a pork seller.
Hung Siong said his brother was single and had been with the company the past six to seven years.
“Our parents have been informed and they are very worried for him. We hope he will return home safely,” he added.
Gunmen’s new modus operandi
THE STAR
KOTA KINABALU: A new kidnap ploy seems to be emerging in abductions off the east coast of Sabah by Filipino gunmen.
Instead of kidnapping hostages off the land or islands, the gunmen have switched to grabbing them off ships or vessels plying the border waters between Malaysia and the Philippines.
On March 26, in the Philippines Tawi Tawi chain of islands close to Sabah, 10 gunmen linked to the Abu Sayyaf terror group abducted 10 Indonesian crewmen from two Taiwanese registered tugboats –Brahma 12 and Anand 12.
One of the tugboats was found adrift near Laguyan in Tawi Tawi but the 10 Indonesians vanished along with their captors. Later, the Abu Sayyaf, who was holding them hostage, demanded 50mil pesos (about RM5mil).
In a similar modus operandi on Friday night, eight gunmen boarded Malaysian tugboat MV Masfive 6 near Pulau Ligitan off the east coast of Sabah that borders the Celebes Sea which is flanked by Philippines and Indonesia to the north and south respectively.
But the gunmen only took the four Malaysian crewmen – Wong Teck Kang, 31, Wong Hung Sing, 34, Wong Teck Chii, 29, and Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21 – all from Sarawak. They left behind the three Myanmar and two Indonesian crew members.
Big relief: The other crew members arriving at the Tawau jetty after four of their colleagues were kidnapped by armed Filipino gunmen.
Those left on the tugboat alerted their company at about 7pm on Friday, soon after the gunmen had fled in a high-powered twin-engine grey speedboat towards the Philippines.
The remaining crew headed to Tawau where police are piecing together the events that took place.
Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun said it looked like the cross-border kidnap groups were starting a new trend and operating along the borders in view of the heightened security in Sabah’s east coast.
“Due also to the on-going curfew, the latest incident occurred at the periphery of the Sabah-Philippine border.
“These criminals no longer choose their victims. They will take just about anyone as long as it’s easy for them to grab and leave.”
Abdul Rashid said they were unsure at the moment which group was responsible for the latest kidnapping, adding that they were waiting to hear from their counterparts in southern Philippines.
He said this when asked whether the notorious kidnap-for-ransom Muktadir brothers with links to Abu Sayyaf were involved in raiding the tugboat, which was on its way back to Tawau after unloading timber in Manila.
When contacted, Tawi Tawi police chief Senior Supt Elizalde Quiboyen said there were no reports of any sightings or landings by the kidnappers or their hostages on any of their islands and added that police, navy and coastguard personnel were on high alert.
Initial intelligence reports seem to indicate that the kidnappers were not the Muktadir brothers (responsible for half a dozen abductions in Sabah) although their involvement has yet to be ruled out.
Sources in Jolo said the four Malaysians had yet to land in Jolo where Abu Sayyaf gunmen were holding the earlier 10 Indonesians abducted under notorious Abu Sayyaf sub commander Alhabsy Misaya.
Some sources claimed that they were being held by another commander, Sawajan.
The last kidnapping involving a Malaysian vessel took place on April 11, 2004. Three sailors – two Sarawakians and a Indonesian skipper – were kidnapped in the same waters between Sandakan and Tawi Tawi.
The Sarawakians died of natural causes during their captivity and the Indonesian was released.
The last time gunmen abducted hostages from the mainland was from the Ocean King Seafood Restaurant, not far from Sandakan town on May 4.
One of them, restaurant manager Thien Nyuk Fun, 50, was released on Nov 8, while the other, Sarawakian tourist Bernard Then was beheaded on Nov 17 after failed negotiations.
New modus operandi: Four crew members of the ‘MV Masfive 6’ were kidnapped by armed Filipino gunmen near Pulau Ligitan off Semporna on Friday night.
