Abu Sayyaf-linked kidnappers trying to slip into Jolo island

epa04152125 Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) 52nd Special Action Company conduct security check on motorists at a checkpoint in Indanan Village, Sulu province in the Southern Philippines, 03 April 2014, after the abduction of a Chinese tourist and a Filipino resort worker in a resort island off the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. The two victims, a 29-year-old woman from Shanghai and a 40-year-old female resort worker, were seized late 02 April from Singamata Reef Resort, off the town of Semporna, about 1,880 kilometres east of Kuala Lumpur. Last year, a Taiwanese woman was kidnapped in another Semporna resort and was recovered more than a month later in the nearby southern Philippine island of Jolo, Sulu a known base for al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels. EPA/BEN HAJAN

KOTA KINABALU: A cat-and-mouse game is playing out between Philippine security forces and Abu Sayyaf-linked mercenaries holding two women hostages who are trying to slip into Jolo island.

The gunmen, who abducted Chinese national Gao Huayun, 29, and Filipino resort worker Marcy Dayawan, 40, from Semporna on Wednesday, are holding out in Pandami island which is a four-hour boat ride to Abu Sayaff’s lair of Jolo in the southern Philippines.