By DAVID SANTOS
ABS-CBN Zamboanga
Isabela City - Basilan Vice-Governor Al-Rasheed Sakalahul has confirmed that a minimal amount of money indeed exchange hands for the release of the four workers of the Basilan Electric Cooperative.
Speaking to ABS-CBN News earlier Friday, Sakalahul said that P89,000 was handed out to the kidnappers, shortly before freeing captives – Emilberto Singson, Alberto Singson, Paul Herwig and Berian Herwig.
The four, along with co-worker Ronnie Tansiong, were seized by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits in Tuburan town last June 26, while doing engineering work for BASELCO.
Tansiong, a Yakan native, was freed just hours after the abduction.
On Thursday evening, exactly two weeks since the abduction, the four remaining captives were freed in Barangay Mangkawa in Al-Barka town.
This, following a couple of attempts by the BASELCO management to convince the kidnappers to free the hostages without the P1-million ransom demand citing two reasons: one, that the families of the captives are so hard-up to raise the amount and two, that even BASELCO itself is cash-strapped.
Sakalahul said, aside from his personal money, BASELCO, its employees and the hostages' families, raised the P89,000 "board and lodging fee" given to the kidnappers.
According to the hostages, they were treated well by their captors. They likewise denied reports that they were threatened to be beheaded, if ransom was not paid for their release.
Meanwhile, the military in Basilan said, it is poised to pursue the kidnappers, led by notorious bandit Nurhassan Jamiri, now that the BASELCO workers have been freed.
Basilan's Marine brigade commander, Col. Rustico Guerrero said they are likely to extract vital information from the freed hostages, particularly on their kidnapper's identities and hide-outs, in a bid to neutralize them.
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