ZAMBOANGA CITY: Abu Sayyaf rebels holding at least five foreigners have rejected demands by a former Muslim rebel group to free their captives being held in southern Philippines, security officials said on Wednesday.

Officials said that a senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Habier Malik, tried to negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf for the freedom of the hostages in the hinterlands of Sulu province.

“As far as we know, the Abu Sayyaf has rejected the MNLF efforts to secure the release of the hostages, not without ransoms,” said Army Col. Rodrigo, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga.

Recently, about 2,000 MNLF members headed by Malik, tried to persuade the Abu Sayyaf to free the foreign captives as well as two detained Filipinos.

Rodrigo said that Malik’s group has returned to their bases. “The efforts of the MNLF to secure the freedom of the hostages are unilateral on their part and have the permission of the local government officials and military commanders on the ground. But our efforts are also continuing to safely recover all the victims,” he told The Manila Times.

Police said that the Abu Sayyaf has been holding a Japanese treasure hunter, Toshio Ito, 66, since 2010 and that he was last reported to have been helping the rebel group in cooking food for them and freely moves around.

Senior Supt. Antonio Freyra, the Sulu police chief, said that besides the Japanese, the Abu Sayyaf is also holding Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani, 43, and his two Filipino assistants Rolando Letrero, 22, and Ramelito Vela, 39.

The trio went to Sulu in June 2012 to secretly film the Abu Sayyaf for a documentary on Al Arabiya News Channel.

Freyra said that two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland, kidnapped in February his year in Tawi-Tawi province had been brought to Sulu.

“As long as the MNLF [members] don’t put the law in their own hands or violate the law in pursuance of their efforts, I don’t see any problem. We welcome all efforts in securing the safe release of the hostages,” Freyra said.

Another group of kidnappers are also holding Malaysian fish trader Pang Choon Pong, who was
seized in October 2011 in Tawi-Tawi, but his fate remains unknown.

In November 2012, Malaysian authorities said that two of its own were seized by five gunmen disguised as policemen from a palm oil plantation in Sabah near the Philippine border.

It said that the two, who are cousins, were both working for the plantation in Lahad Datu, and had been taken at gunpoint. Their companions said that the gunmen spoke in Malayu and Tausug, a dialect commonly used in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Abu Sayyaf rebels are also holding an Australian adventurer, Warren Rodwell, a former soldier, who was kidnapped in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay in December 2011. Rodwell, 54, is married to a Filipina, Miraflor Gutang, 28.

The rebels have originally demanded $1 million ransom for the release of Rodwell, but eventually lowered this to only $460,000. It was not known yet how much ransom the Abu Sayyaf is asking for the remaining captives, who are being held by different rebel commanders.