Abductors of Malaysian-Chinese traders not Sayyaf

The kidnappers who snatched two Malaysian-Chinese businessmen off Sabah earlier this week could not have been Abu Sayyaf bandits, a Philippine military general said Friday. In a phone interview, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, commander of the military's Western Mindanao Command, quoted Malaysian authorities investigating the incident as saying that the suspects might have been Malaysian nationals "Their suspects are Malaysians, not (Abu Sayyaf)... As far as Malaysian authorities..., the suspects are Malaysians," Dolorfino said. The Philippine National Police (PNP) earlier reported that traders Chen Yui Chung and Lai Wong Chung were abducted by a group led by Albader Parad about 2 p.m. Monday on Sivangkat Island in Semporna, Sabah. A report from the PNP also indicated that the victims were forced to board two speedboats and then taken to Siasi town in Sulu, after refuelling in Tawi-Tawi. [See: Govt checking reports traders seized in Malaysia brought to RP] But Dolorfino belied the police report saying: "There is no confirmatory report (that they are in Sulu), there is negative sighting." "The intelligence community is exerting efforts to determine if they entered here but so far... there is still no indication," he added. Who is Parad? It will be remembered that Parad led the Abu Sayyaf unit that held captive ABS-CBN reporter Cecilia Oreña-Drilon and two of her crew in Sulu in June 2008. [Learn more about Albader Parad] Parad's group was also responsible for the abduction of the three humanitarian workers of the International Committee for the Red Cross in Jolo, Sulu in January 1999, seven months after Drilon's kidnapping. Asked why Parad's name could have been dragged in the kidnapping incident, Dolorfino said the police might have mixed up information about the February 8 abduction with intelligence reports about the Abu Sayyaf's plan to strike in Malaysia. “They might have merged the (information) because the intelligence community has an information about a plan of the Abu Sayyaf to kidnap there. They may have merged (the information)," said Dolorfino. Navy units have likewise been deployed to conduct maritime interdiction operation "but there is still no positive result," according to Dolorfino. Just the same, the military is still verifying any possible involvement of the notorious bandit group in the Malaysia kidnapping as part of its "precautionary measure." Sipadan kidnap crisis "They have the capability [to abduct outside the Philippines]... Its the nature of the Abu Sayyaf to use pump boats because they have to return immediately (to Mindanao)," Dolorfino said. In April 2000, Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnapped 21 mostly European and Asian holiday vacationers in Sabah and brought them to Sulu where they had been ransomed off to Libyan negotiators. The hostages include three Germans, two French, two South Africans, and two Finns, one Lebanese, nine Malaysians and a Filipino working at the Sipadan Island Resort. - Mark Merueñas/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV