MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 12, 2008) – Abu Sayyaf militants have reportedly demanded as much as P50 million for the safe release of a kidnapped television news crew in the southern Philippine island of Sulu.
Militants are holding award-winning ABS-CBN reporter Ces Drilon and her two cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, including a university professor Octavio Dinampo.
Philippine television giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation said it would not pay ransom to kidnappers, who originally demanded P10 million ransoms. Radio network dzRH in Manila on Thursday said the militants were demanding P50 million from the victims' families negotiating directly with the Abu Sayyaf.
It said the hostages should have been freed on Wednesday after unnamed negotiators agreed to pay the ransom money, but the Abu Sayyaf did not release Drilon's group after the ABS-CBN issued a statement saying it will not pay ransom to the terrorist group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya.
The radio network, owned by the Manila Broadcasting Corporation, which quoted unnamed sources privy to the negotiations, also reported that the kidnappers have already lowered their demands to P25 million. The reports could not be independently confirmed and police in Sulu said Dinampo had been separated from the group of Drilon.
"We have intelligence reports saying Dinampo had been separated from the other captives for a still unknown reason," Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the provincial police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.
The fate of Dinampo remains unknown. But Kasim said the hostages are being held by Abu Sayyaf leaders Albader Parad and Umbra Jumdail, also known as Dr. Abu, in Sulu's hinterlands.
Police also tagged Gafur Jumdail as among those who kidnapped the four people on June 8 near the village of Kulasi in Maimbung town while on their way to interview a senior Abu Sayyaf terror leader, Radulan Sahiron, who is said to be planning to surrender.
Kasim also denied news reports the Jemaah Islamiya is holding the hostages. "We have no reports about JI's involvement in the kidnappings. As far as we know, it the group of Parad and Jumdail," he said.
"ABS CBN News journalists Ces Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion, and Angelo Valderama have been kidnapped for ransom. ABS CBN News is doing everything it can to help the families of its kidnapped journalists through this harrowing ordeal," the television network said in a statement released on Wednesday.
"However, ABS CBN News will abide by its policy not to pay ransom because this would embolden kidnap for ransom groups to abduct other journalists, putting more lives at risk," it added.
Police said the hostages are still alive, but it was unclear where the Abu Sayyaf is hiding the victims. The kidnappers have picked an emissary, Isnaji Alvarez, the mayor of Indanan town in Sulu, to negotiate for the release of the hostages, the ABS-CBN reported.
Alvarez, a former Moro National Liberation Front rebel leader, is also one of seven candidates running for the regional governor in the Muslim autonomous region elections in August.
Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, chief of the regional police force, said there are efforts to negotiate with the kidnappers for the release of the hostages. "There are options here and one is to locate the hostages and negotiate for their safe release," he said.
Goltiao said the government has a strict no-ransom policy. He said the police are closely coordinating with Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, the head of the local Crisis Management Committee, in resolving the problem peacefully.
Parad and Jumdail are notorious Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by Washington and Manila for terrorism and kidnappings-for-ransom. The two are also believed coddling Jemaah Islamiya bomber Dulmatin and Umar Patek, tagged as behind the 2002 deadly bombings in Bali which killed more than 200 mostly tourists; and in several attacks in Jakarta.
The Abu Sayyaf group was also tagged as behind the kidnapping early this year of Maria Rosalie Lao, 58, a rice trader in Jolo town. It was also behind the kidnappings in 2001 of 21 people, mostly Asian and European tourists from the Malaysian island-resort of Sipadan.
Last year, the group kidnapped seven people in Sulu and beheaded them after their families failed to pay up ransom.
The US has offered up to $5 million bounty and Manila as much as P10 million rewards for known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Jumdail, for their capture – dead or alive.
The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, also offered to help secure the release of Drilon's team which arrived in Sulu on June 7 from Zamboanga City. Police said Drilon did not coordinate with them when they arrived in Sulu. She also declined military escorts.
Drilon's group was lodged at the Sulu State College hostel in Jolo town where they took two rooms and left after ordering foods good for 20 people.
Her group was the second from the television network to be kidnapped in Sulu in the past eight years. Reporter Maan Macapagal and her cameraman Val Cuenca were also kidnapped on the island while working on exclusive news on the Abu Sayyaf.
Independent journalist Arlyn dela Cruz was also kidnapped in Sulu while covering the Abu Sayyaf. Another photojournalist Gene Boyd Lumawag was shot in the head by an Abu Sayyaf militant while shooting the sunset in Sulu several years ago.
The Abu Sayyaf had also seized foreign journalists covering the Sipadan kidnapping crisis. Many of those kidnapped were freed after paying huge ransom.
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