ZAMBOANGA CITY , 1 December 2003 — Government troops freed before dawn yesterday a dentist and his nephew who were being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern island of Jolo.
Officials said Dr. Romeo Lao, 56, and Amor Rubio, 16, were rescued after a brief firefight between soldiers and rebels shortly before 1 a.m. in the village of Lagasan in Parang town.
Col. Alexander Yapching, the military commander in Jolo Island, the rebels were forced to abandon their captives when they sensed that they were cornered.
Lao and Rubio were kidnapped by rebels, believed to be under Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, in September in downtown Jolo.
The victims were airlifted yesterday to Zamboanga City, where they were taken to a hospital for examination.
The victims, both frail and pale, were not allowed to speak to reporters. A relative, Maria Teresa Lao, told reporters in the hospital that the two could hardly eat during their 12-weeks ordeal from the hands of the kidnappers and were constantly moving from one place to another.
“I have spoken with my brother-in-law, Dr. Lao and he told me that they were not maltreated by the kidnapers during their captivity. But he told us that food was scarce in the mountain and they could hardly eat. They are both frail, but we are all glad that it is all over now. We are so happy,” she said.
She said the gunmen originally demanded 15 million pesos as ransom, but their family could not afford to pay.
Former defense chief Angelo Reyes, and now commander of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf), went last week to Zamboanga City and ordered the military to intensify the operation to free Lao and Rubio and the five remaining Borneo hostages held by gunmen in the southern province of Tawi-Tawi.
“There is an ongoing offensive in Jolo and troops are hunting down those responsible in the kidnapping of Dr. Lao and his nephew Rubio,” Reyes told Arab News by phone.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya yesterday said the kidnappers are now on the run in Jolo island because of an intensified government operation there.”Security forces are pursuing the lawless elements and sooner or later we will get them,” Abaya said.
The military said Andang’s group was linked to the kidnapping of 21 mostly European holiday-makers from the island resort of Sipadan in Sabah during a daring cross-border raid in 2000. Most of the hostages were freed after Libya and Malaysian negotiators paid an estimated $15 million ransom to the kidnappers.
The military said yesterday that an escaped Abu Sayyaf member who was implicated in the Sipadan kidnappings was recaptured during a raid at the Jolo marketplace yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, a regional army commander, said security forces nabbed the Jainal late Saturday after intelligence agents tracked him down to his hideout.
Jainal was arrested in 2000 after he tried to exchange more than $300,000 to a local bank. The money was believed to be part of a ransom paid by Malaysian and Libyan negotiators for the safe release of several Sipadan hostages.
Jainal went into hiding in Jolo after jumping bail, the military said.
