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A well-known television reporter and two other
hostages are safe and well after being freed by terrorists in
southern Philippines amid “betrayal” and suspicion that a huge
ransom was paid to their kidnappers.
Cecilia “Ces” Oreña-Drilon,
46 and also an anchor for ABS-CBN broadcast network, added a new
twist to her nine-day ordeal by revealing that someone had turned on
her and delivered her to the kidnappers.
“There was some betrayal
involved, and that is why we were kidnapped,” said Drilon, who
declined to say who had squealed on her.
The national police chief,
Avelino Razon Jr., said they would question the freed hostages on
who betrayed them, and that his men were tracking down the
kidnappers.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
said he will have the kidnapping itself investigated and “even the
negotiators” too. He added that the motives for the abduction
could be “money and politics.” Gonzalez cited ransoms as a
source of poll funds for politicians running in the 2010 elections.
Presidential Spokesman Jesus
Dureza said, “We are happy for bringing the victims back, but our
rejoicing must not overshadow our unrelenting efforts to bring the
perpetrators to the bar of justice and [for them to] face the full
force of the law.”
Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita agreed with Dureza on chasing after the kidnappers. He
praised the media for “not exacerbating” the hostage crisis
“since that might jeopardize the safety of the victims.” Ermita,
though, advised the media “should know [when not to throw] caution
to the wind” in exercising their profession.
He admitted that the government
falling short of addressing needs of the people of Sulu could have
pushed young Muslims into joining the Abu Sayyaf.
Threatened with beheading
In her first interviews since she
was released, a tearful Drilon told reporters of how the Abu Sayyaf
rebels holding her and three others in her group had threatened to
behead them. Her group numbered four originally but one, an ABS-CBN
cameraman, was freed days ahead of them.
“We came close to losing our
lives,” she said hours after their release shortly before midnight
of Tuesday.
Drilon walked out of a forest in
Jolo, the capital of Sulu province in the Mindanao region, said
Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, the regional police commander.
“Words are not enough,” she
said, thanking those who worked for her release and that of another
ABS-CBN cameraman, Jimmy Encarnacion, and professor Octavio Dinampo
from Mindanao State University.
The mother of four, whose face
was scarred by mosquito bites, added that her group was tied up and
one of the kidnappers had slapped her.
“I thought I was so
reckless,” Drilon said. “I didn’t think of my family who I put
through a really terrible ordeal in the past 10 days.”
No-ransom story
Sources close to the negotiators
said the television anchor’s group was ransomed after talks were
held between the Abu Sayyaf and Sen. Loren Legarda, a prominent
politician and Drilon friend. Legarda is expected to contest the
2010 presidential elections.
Both the government and ABS-CBN,
the country’s largest broadcaster, previously said no ransom would
be paid for the freedom of its crew, even after the Muslim
extremists threatened to behead the captives.
Although government officials
would not comment on the conditions of the hostages’ release, a
negotiator said he paid P100,000 (about $2,250) to the terrorists
for “board and lodging.”
A similar amount was paid last
week for the release of cameraman Angelo Valderama, said negotiator
Isnaji Alvarez.
“Board and lodging expenses”
is a term that negotiators use in Sulu to refer to payments to
kidnappers to avoid saying they paid a ransom.
Drilon’s group was abducted on
its way to interview a senior Abu Sayyaf leader on June 8.
Alvarez, mayor of Sulu’s
Indanan town, said Legarda had played a major role in the
negotiations, providing “livelihood projects for Muslims.”
“We did not give any ransom,
just the expenses. Our only commitment [to the kidnappers] was the
aid projects, livelihood, infrastructure projects like
farm-to-market roads,” he added.
Legarda made the same commitment.
Senator doubts story
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon expressed
doubts that no ransom was paid for the release of the Drilon group.
“Let us stop kidding each
other. What they call ‘livelihood project’ and ‘board and
lodging’ fee given to kidnappers are actually ransom payments,”
he said.
Biazon added that it has been a
policy never to admit the payment of any ransom but it did not mean
that none is ever paid. He said that whatever amount given to
kidnappers is considered ransom.
“This livelihood project, to
whom will they give it? How will this be implemented? If the
government agrees to give it, then the government is actually paying
some form of ransom one way or another,” he said.
Biazon questioned how some local
and national government officials can go in and out of the
kidnappers’ lair whether as negotiators or mediators. He said an
“asset” told him that the day after Drilon was abducted, there
was an immediate discussion on being part of the negotiations and
the payment of ransom.
According to Biazon, his
“asset” told him that the initial group of 10 kidnappers
attracted other participants to the “fund-raising” so the number
grew to 100 and the initial ransom demand of P10 million increased
to P20 million.
The senator said his “asset”
was the same one who correctly told him that Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, an
Italian priest who was kidnapped last year in Mindanao, was not in
Basilan but in Lanao del Norte, both provinces in Mindanao.
While Biazon was critical of the
“livelihood project” given to Drilon’s kidnappers, he
expressed relief over her release without the loss of lives,
“unlike in the kidnapping of Fr. Bossi where 14 Marines were
killed.”
Senators Manuel Roxas 2nd, Ramon
Revilla Jr., Richard Gordon and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. echoed
Biazon’s relief on the release.
In previous kidnappings in Sulu,
a mainly Muslim island and one of the poorest areas of the
Philippines, negotiators have also avoided saying they paid ransom,
insisting they only provided funds to create jobs.
Alvarez said the kidnappers were
also frightened by the prospect of military attack.
Sources privy to the negotiations
said that millions of pesos (tens of thousands of dollars) were paid
to the abductors, who are linked by intelligence agencies to the al-Qaeda
terror network.
The kidnappers are believed to
have demanded about $1 million, roughly P42 million, from Drilon’s
family.
The Abu Sayyaf, a small group of
rebels founded with money provided by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden
in the early 1990s, has been blamed for the country’s worst
terrorist attacks as well as for kidnappings of Western tourists and
Christian missionaries.
Drilon’s group was turned over
to police agents late Wednesday near Sulu’s Talipao town, after
which they were flown by helicopter to nearby Zamboanga City where
the military debriefed them.
Network thankful
In a statement, ABS-CBN
executives said they “thanked with all our heart all those who
helped in the release of Ces” and her cameramen.
“Most of all, we thank [Legarda
and] the local officials of Jolo.”
The involvement of Legarda, a
former broadcaster for ABS-CBN, was not disclosed to the public
until the hostage crisis ended.
She said in a radio interview
from Zamboanga that Drilon told her she had been slapped by her
captors although other officials said the broadcaster had been
unharmed.
According to Legarda, Drilon’s
group was freed without conditions.
--AFP, Efren L. Danao, Angelo S. Samonte and William B. Depasupil
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