Security forces rescue 2 kidnapped Chinese in Basilan

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Security forces rescued two kidnapped Chinese late Friday in the southern province of Basilan after more than three months in captivity, police said. According to local police chief, the duo – Zi Shun Lu, 51, alias Oscar Lu; and Bo Shung Tan, 27, alias Michael Tan, both from Guangzhou, China – were rescued at around 8:20 p.m. in the village of Binembengan in Sumisip town. “They were brought to hospital for medical examinations," Senior Superintendent Antonio Mendoza, the provincial police chief, said. He did not give details of the rescue, saying, operation is going on to capture the kidnappers. Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped the two Chinese on November 10 from a plywood factory in Basilan’s Maluso town along with a Filipino worker, Mark Singson, who was later beheaded after his employer, Hi-Tech Wood Craft Corporation, failed to pay ransom. The kidnappers headed by Puruji Indama originally demanded P15 million for the release of the hostages. The two foreigners were previously reported to be Filipino citizens, but later investigations revealed they were Chinese. Last week, two government soldiers were killed and another was wounded in a landmine explosion while searching for the Chinese hostages in the village of Pamatsaken in Sumisip town. Last year, Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped three government teachers – Noemi Mandi, Jocelyn Enriquez and Jocelyn Inion – in Zamboanga Sibugay’s Naga town and brought victims to Basilan province where they had been later freed in exchange for ransom. Three other state teachers Janette de los Reyes, Freires Quizon and Rafael Mayonado, all kidnapped in Zamboanga City, were also brought to Basilan and released four months later after private negotiators gave ransom money to the Abu Sayyaf bandits. But a faction of the Abu Sayyaf last year also beheaded a school principal, Gabriel Canizares, in nearby Sulu province after his family failed to raise P2 million ransom. His head was found at a petrol station in the capital town of Jolo. — Al Jacinto/LBG, GMAnews.TV