Chinese-Malaysian escapes from abductors

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ZAMBOANGA CITY—A Chinese-Malaysian kidnapped in Lahad Datu in Sabah last year escaped from his abductors in Indanan, Sulu, on Tuesday morning, police said.

Senior Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, deputy director of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, said SPO4 Baltazar Sawabi claimed he saw the victim, Tung Wee Jie, walking on the highway in the village of Pasil at around 7 a.m. and asked him if he needed help.

Tung then introduced himself as one of two oil palm plantation workers who were abducted in Lahad Datu on Nov. 13 last year.

Col. Jose Johriel Cenabre, commander of the Joint Task Force Sulu, said Tung claimed that the other victim, his cousin, Fei, died of illness while in captivity.

“We still don’t have the complete details of how they were abducted and what kind of illness afflicted his cousin,” Cenabre said.

Gucela said Tung was taken to the Sulu Provincial Hospital for a medical check up. He was to be transferred later to Zamboanga City for a debriefing.

Kidnappers in Sulu are still holding European bird watchers Lorenzo Vinciguerra and Ewold Horn, Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani, the sisters Linda and Nadjoua Bansil, coffee shop owner Reynato Yanga, Japanese treasure hunter Mamaito Katayama and Casilda Villarasa, wife of a Philippine Marine.