THE STAR
KOTA KINABALU: Looking gaunt and exhausted but with smiles on their faces, four Malaysian sailors returned home safely after 69 days in the hands of the notorious Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the mountainous jungles of Jolo.
The four Sarawakians, whose release came late on Tuesday evening, were unhurt as they made their way back to Sandakan.
Brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Wong Teck Chii, 29, along with their cousins Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, and Wong Hung Sing, 34 were met by family members who had been in Sandakan waiting for their release for about a week.
Tears of joy flowed when the four sailors hugged their family members from Sibu and Miri as they met privately at a hotel in Sandakan as police shielded them from the public.
Police also debriefed the four, who are expected to be flown back to Sarawak today where they will be reunited with other family members.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Noor Rashid Ibrahim confirmed the release and said the four were back in Malaysia and in stable condition.
He said police would speak to them once they recovered from their ordeal.
Filipino officials said they could not ascertain if any ransom was paid although earlier reports said that the gunmen had demanded 300 million pesos (about RM30mil) for the release of their Malaysian captives.
However, they said the captors had dropped their price to 250 million pesos (RM25mil) and later to 180 million pesos (RM18mil).
“We are not sure what the final figure was,” an official in Jolo said, adding that they usually referred to such payments as board and lodging.
Philippines military Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) spokesman Major Filemon Tan Jr said they were gathering more information as to how the release of the four men came about.
“We would like to know exactly where and when the Abu Sayyaf released their Malaysian captives,” he said.
Sulu Provincial Police director Senior Superintendent Wilfredo Cayat also confirmed the release of the victims but said the police Anti-Kidnapping Group had more details on the release.
Manila (AFP) -- Four Malaysian sailors held for more than two months by a notorious kidnapping-for-ransom gang in the strife-torn southern Philippines were released on Wednesday, the Philippine military said.
The Abu Sayyaf, a loose network of Islamic militants that has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings in recent years, released the sailors just after midnight on Jolo island, one of its strongholds, according to regional military spokesman Filemon Tan.
The sailors were then taken by speedboat about 300 kilometres (200 miles) back to Malaysia, Tan said.
He confirmed that the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped the sailors, but could not say if ransoms were paid.
"We have yet to confirm whether ransom money was paid in exchange for the safe release of the victims," said Tan.
Formed in the early 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.
The militants regularly abduct foreigners and locals to extort money for their release.
In May, the Abu Sayyaf released 14 Indonesian sailors who had been kidnapped in two high-seas raids similar to the abduction of the Malaysians.
The kidnappings prompted Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to launch joint patrols in their waters and set up a security hotline.
In April, the Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel after a deadline for paying a ransom of $6.4 million passed, and in November last year killed a Malaysian man.
Ridsdel was kidnapped along with a Canadian friend, a Norwegian man and a Filipina from aboard yachts at a marina in the southern Philippines in September last year.
The Abu Sayyaf has warned it will kill either the Canadian or the Norwegian if a multi-million-dollar ransom is not paid by Monday.
The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a Dutch birdwatcher kidnapped in 2012.
The Abu Sayyaf's leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, but analysts say it is more focused on kidnappings for ransom than setting up a caliphate.
Abu Sayyaf: a history of executing hostages
In the case of the abduction of the four Malaysian sailors, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered government agencies to step up efforts to secure their safe release. Najib personally assured family members that the sailors would return home safely.
In November, Abu Sayyaf beheaded Bernard Then, a Malaysian citizen who had been abducted from a seaside restaurant in Sabah in May 2015.
While the four Malaysian sailors were being held hostage, Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel on April 25, five hours after a ransom deadline had passed.
Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was kidnapped along with countryman Robert Hall, 50, Norwegian Kjartan Sakkingstad, 56, and his Filipino girlfriend, Maritess Flor, 40, from a resort on Samal Island, in the Philippine province of Davao, in September.
Two weeks earlier, Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead one of the captives if a ransom of 1 million ringgit (U.S. $6.2 million) for each person was not paid.
In its latest ultimatum, the group gave the Philippine and Canadian governments and families of the captives until 3 p.m. on June 13 to pay the ransoms.
