ZAMBOANGA CITY: Abu Sayyaf militants holding three Red Cross members are said to be demanding $5 million in exchange for the freedom of the hostages, reports said yesterday.
The Deutsche Press Agentur (DPA) quoted unidentified Filipino military intelligence officials who said the militants, led by Albader Parad and Abu Pula, were planning to ransom off the hostages. It was unknown how the military knew about the plan and the German news agency gave no details about the military report.
But the International Committee of the Red Cross, to which the three belong, said it would not pay ransom to the kidnappers holding the trio — Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Jean Lacaba — in the hinterlands of Sulu province. The aid organization said the hostages made a phone call on Friday and said they are unharmed.
“The three abducted colleagues have been able to call the International Committee of the Red Cross directly and they said that they are unharmed, so that’s good news. And there is no further information available on their whereabouts precisely or who is holding them,” Roland Bigler, ICRC spokesman in Manila, said.
Bigler appealed to the kidnappers to free the hostages.
“We hope that they will be shortly and safely released and they will regain their freedom and we appeal of course to respect their physical integrity, to respect their lives and to respect these three colleagues,” Bigler said.
The hostages are believed to be in the dense jungle of Indanan town, where Parad has recently married a local woman and is building a new house for himself and his wife. Parad was also linked to the Dec. 13 kidnapping of a Chinese trader, Xili Wu alias Peter Go, in Sulu’s Jolo town.
Parad’s group seized the 28-year old Xili, from Fujian province, as he was closing his electronics store. Police said Xili, along with five other Chinese men, arrived in Jolo in December 2007 and since then operated the Perlas Trading by using fake Filipino identities.
Authorities have tagged the Abu Sayyaf as behind the spate of kidnappings and bomb attacks across Mindanao. The group, made up mostly of former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels, has been labeled a terrorist organization by both Manila and Washington.
The US has offered as much as $5 million for the capture of known Abu Sayyaf leaders and up to $10 million for Dulmatin’s capture and another $1 million for Patek’s head.
