Abu Sayyaf frees 3 Indonesian captives

The Abu Sayyaf Group freed three Indonesian hostages in Sionogan, Sulu early yesterday morning, a day after the extremist group released Norwegian captive Kjartan Sekkingstad.

Sekkingstad was kidnapped along with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and Maritess Flor, a Filipina, in September a year ago in a resort at Samal Island in Davao del Norte province.

Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza will present freed Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad to President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday.

“Thank you to President Duterte”, were Sekkingstad’s precise words, according to an Inquirer report.

Forner also thanked Dureza for his “tireless efforts” to get Sekkingstad released.

Major Filemon Tan, spokesman of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the release of Mr Sekkingstad was the result of “intense” military operations against the Abu Sayyaf.

“It’s (the release of Norwegian) is a good development and the government’s war against terrorism will continue”, he said.

John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, the two Canadians seized with Sekkingstad, were beheaded after a ransom demand of about 300 million pesos ($6.5 million) was not met.

Mr Sekkingstad, then aged 56, was abducted in September 2015 from the high-end Philippine tourist resort which he managed and was taken to Jolo by the Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf has made tens of millions of dollars from ransom money since it was formed in the 1990s. The Filipina victim was released in June.

“I feel so relieved that I am free from that very remote place and I can now return to being [healthy] because I was thinking that I have been beheaded”, he added, expressing gratitude to the Philippines’ government and armed forces as well as the MNLF.

Misuari handed over the freed captives to Dureza in Indanan on Sunday.

Mr Sekkingstad said he endured “psychological pressure”, with the Abu Sayyaf threatening several times to behead him.

The three Indonesians were taken to the nearby city of Zamboanga where a retired Indonesian general was waiting to pick them up. Borge said he was told that Sekkingstad would be likely handed over to the Philippine authorities on Sunday.

While Duterte has pursued peace talks with Misuari’s group and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front, he has ordered the military to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, a smaller but more brutal band that the president says aims to establish an Islamic state or caliphate.

Speaking at a military gathering in an army base, Duterte said: “The Abu Sayyaf no longer hungers for independence in Mindanao”.

And Duterte’s spokesman Martin Andanar also said in Manila that “the (Philippine) government maintains the no-ransom policy”.

Tan said one of the 15 confiscated boats was believed to be used by bandit leader Alhabsy Misaya, who is responsible for kidnapping Indonesian and Malaysian tugboat crews in the high seas these past months.

The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the group as a “terrorist” organisation for bombings, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, and beheadings of locals and foreigners.