ZAMBOANGA CITY, 23 October 2006 — An unspecified amount of money was reportedly paid to kidnappers in the restive southern Philippine island of Jolo in exchange for the freedom of three engineers and their driver last week.
A military source yesterday said “private negotiators” tapped by provincial government officials arranged the payment, which resulted in the immediate release of the hostages. The four were abducted supposedly by their own escorts on Tuesday and freed on Thursday.
But Gov. Benjamin Loong of Sulu province, to which Jolo belongs, denied that ransom was paid and stuck to the official line that the hostages escaped when their captors fell asleep. “The hostages really escaped from the kidnappers,” he said.
Col. Reynaldo Sealana, commander of an army brigade on Jolo, had also maintained that the four were freed without ransom due to mounting military pressure.
The hostages — engineers Romeo Rivera, Reynaldo Rubio and Larry Bautista, and driver Isidro Amarano Lapus — were recovered by troops on Friday, two days after their own native bodyguards kidnapped them while inspecting a Washington-funded road project in the town of Parang.
Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, the military commander for Western Mindanao, has blamed the kidnapping on an Abu Sayyaf faction and identified three of the captors as brothers Anni and Iting Sailani and Bong Iskandal.
Rubio has said the kidnappers demanded at least 30 million pesos for their freedom, but also claimed that they escaped while their captors were sleeping.
Rubio said he later learned that the kidnappers managed to withdraw P60,000 from his ATM (automated teller machine) account from a bank in the town of Jolo.
The Philippine government maintains a no-ransom policy but officials have admitted in the past that “board-and-lodging” payments have been made for the release of some hostages.
