Suspected Islamic militants on the run from pursuing troops freed three of five aid workers they abducted in the southern Philippines, officials said yesterday.
At least 12 Filipino aid workers were traveling on Monday in two vehicles from a humanitarian mission when about 10 gunmen believed to be from the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group stopped them near a village in Ungkaya Pukan township on Basilan, navy spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Edgardo Arevalo said.
Seven of the workers managed to flee from the scene aboard one vehicle, but five others, including three women, were taken hostage.
The abductors released three hostages without ransom late on Monday in Basilan’s Al-Barka township, leaving two women still captive, Arevalo said.
The kidnappers were forced to abandon Ludy Borja Dekit, Romy delos Reyes and Dionisio Estandarte owing to pressure from pursuing marines, said Colonel Rustico Guerrero, a marine brigade commander in Basilan.
Local police notified the Christian Children’s Fund, that Dekit, an employee of the US-based children’s aid group, was among those released, spokeswoman Cynthia Price said in a statement on Monday.
A search operation was under way to locate the remaining two women hostages identified as Esperancita Hupida, a program director for the nonprofit Nagdilaab Foundation Inc, and Milet Mendoza, an employee of Tabang Mindanao, another local aid group, Guerrero said.
Marine officials confirmed through pictures shown to the aid workers who escaped that the abductors were Abu Sayyaf militants operating in the area, Arevalo said.
Abu Sayyaf has been crippled in recent years by US-backed military offensives, but the Islamist rebel group continues to be a threat in predominantly Muslim Basilan province, about 880km south of Manila.
More than 300 Abu Sayyaf members remain in Basilan and nearby islands, down from more than 1,000 during the height of the group’s activities in the early 2000s. The group has been blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist group for kidnappings, bombings and beheadings.
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