Abducted cop safe, says ex-hostage

KOTA KINABALU: Abducted marine policeman Kons Zakiah Aleip (pic) is safe but kept under close guard by an Abu Sayyaf faction in the mountainous jungles of Indanan, in the southern Philippines island of Jolo.

“He is unharmed,” said Remigio Lingayan, a Filipino hostage who was freed on Sunday after 53 days in captivity.

“I heard some of the gunmen talking about another group holding a Malay policeman.

“They said he was all right,” said Lingayan when contacted by the The Star by telephone in his hometown of Zamboanga City yesterday.

He said the group holding Kons Zakiah was moving about in the mountainous terrain of Indanan to avoid detection by Philippine security forces.

Kons Zakiah, 26, was abducted when gunmen attacked a marine police unit at the Mabul Water Bungalows Resort in Pulau Mabul on July 12.

His colleague Kpl Ab Rajah Jamuan, 32, was killed in the incident.

Previous news reports had stated that an Abu Sayyaf faction headed by Alhabsi Misaya was holding Kons Zakiah captive.

Lingayan, 50, was a plumber in Maimbung town in Jolo for about four years when Abu Sayyaf gunmen took him captive on June 5.

The faction that held him was led by a gunman called Vario.

Lingaya said he was treated well though the kidnappers repeatedly warned him not to make any attempt to escape.

“I think Zakiah is being treated the same way, too,” he said, adding that the constant moving around in the mountainous area of Jolo was the toughest part of being held as a hostage.

Lingayan said the group that held him was also the same one that had kept Chinese national Yang Zai Lin, 34, who was snatched from a fish farm in Pulau Baik on May 6.

“There was this man from China who was kidnapped from Malaysia.

“He was freed in early July,” Lingayan said. (Yang was released on July 9.)

He said he did not hear anything about Chan Sai Chuin, 32, a Malaysian who was abducted from a fish farm at Kampung Sapang near Kunak on June 16.

According to Philippines media quoting authorities there, Lingayan was freed on Sunday after a 500,000 peso (RM36,633) ransom was paid.

Lingayan said the gunmen who held him also had a German couple and a Chinese mother and daughter as hostages.

The Philippines Anti-Kidnapping Group identified the other hostages as Henrike Dielen and Stefan Victor Okonek, who were snatched off Palawan in April, and Chinese nationals Dina Tan and her daughter Yahong, who were abducted in May in Basilan island.

Related story:

Subdued Hari Raya in Sabah