Ransom talk persists as Korean freed

Kidnap victims Park Chul-hong, a South Korean ship captain, and Filipino ship crewman Glenn Alindajao are escorted from a private jet that brought them to Zamboanga City after their release by Abu Sayyaf in Sulu. —JEOFFREY MAITEM

JOLO—A South Korean ship captain and his Filipino crewman were freed by their captors on Saturday to Philippine authorities who denied that ransom had been paid but would not rule out what one official said were private efforts that could have led to ransom payment.

Members of the Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda linked crime group behind dozens of kidnapping cases in Mindanao, handed Park Chul-hong, the South Korean skipper, and Glenn Alindajao, his Filipino crewman, over to Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members.

MNLF members turned over the freed captives to Philippine officials in this town, the capital of Sulu province, a known bastion of the Abu Sayyaf.

The freed hostages appeared well but were not immediately allowed to speak to reporters.

Park is captain of MV Dongbang Giant II, a cargo ship where Alindajao worked as a crew member.

The ship was sailing off Bongao in Tawi-Tawi on its way from Australia to its mother port in Jeju in South Korea when 10 armed men forcibly boarded it.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s peace adviser, Jesus Dureza, flew with the two on board a jet from Jolo to Davao City, the President’s hometown.

“As far as I know there was no ransom money involved,” said Dureza.

“You know the policy of the government. We don’t pay ransom,” he said in a press conference in Davao City after fetching the two freed captives.

He said, though, that there could have been private efforts to free Park and Alindajao.

“If there are efforts taken by the private sector, that is their concern and not ours,” said Dureza.

He said the two captives were turned over to him by Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan on Saturday morning.

At least 27 hostages, many of them foreign crewmen, remain in the hands of different Abu Sayyaf factions, he said.

There have been persistent speculations, however, that most of the freed hostages have been ransomed off.

Without a known foreign source of funds, the Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly on ransom kidnappings.

A confidential Philippine government threat assessment report seen by The Associated Press last year said the militants pocketed at least P353 million from ransom.—JEOFFREY MAITEM, JULIE ALIPALA AND AP