Armed men release 2 Malaysians in Tawi-Tawi

(Updated 11:40 a.m.) Filipino gunmen with ties to al-Qaeda-linked militants have freed two Malaysian laborers from 10 months of jungle captivity, police said Wednesday. The hostages were seized Feb. 8 from a seaweed farm in Malaysia's Sabah state and whisked away in a speedboat to nearby Philippine waters in a pattern similar to past kidnappings-for-ransom blamed on the notorious terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. Police commandos, who have been searching for the captives, recovered the two near Bongao town in the southernmost island province of Tawi-Tawi late Tuesday, national police chief Raul Bacalzo told reporters. He said the gunmen linked to the Abu Sayyaf abandoned the hostages after they were encircled by government forces. The kidnappers escaped and the Malaysians, Chen Yui Chung, 48, and Lai Wong Chun, 46, were flown to Manila. They will be turned over to the Malaysian Embassy after being debriefed by Philippine authorities. The kidnappers had demanded ransom but it was unclear if any was paid, as was the case with past abductions. Malaysian and Philippine authorities were initially unsure if the hostages were still in Malaysia or the southern Philippines, where the Abu Sayyaf and other Moro rebel groups have carried out kidnappings for ransom. Officials in Tawi-Tawi, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) southwest of Manila, had ordered a search in the far-flung province after police in June monitored a cell phone call made by one of the captives to his family in Malaysia, according to a Philippine security official. The official, who helped oversee the search, declined to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media. "They were brought from Tawi-Tawi to Jolo and back and we did not know where to look for them," Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali said. Chen Yui Chung's brother-in-law, Chong Man Tung, told The Associated Press in June that his relative had called him weeks after the abduction saying the two were being held by gunmen on an unspecified Philippine island. The kidnappers apparently had moved the captives from Tawi-Tawi to nearby Jolo Island and back to evade the Philippine military and police manhunt, the security official said. The Abu Sayyaf has gained notoriety for high-profile kidnappings, beheadings and bomb attacks. Battle setbacks, arrests and surrenders have reduced the group's strength to more than 300 from more than 1,000 guerrillas during its heyday in 2000, the military said. That year the militants abducted 21 Asian workers and Western tourists from Malaysia's Sipadan diving resort and brought them to Jolo. They were freed in batches in exchange for huge ransoms. — AP