Report: Sayyaf wants P12M for abducted fishermen from Negros

Abu Sayyaf bandits are demanding P12 million for the freedom of three Negros fishermen they kidnapped off Sulu last March 19. The wife of one of the abducted fishermen said the bandits had originally targeted the owner of the fishing company the victims worked for. Still in captivity are Negros-based fishermen Renato Panisales and Jonard Ocsimar (from Hinobaan) and Wennie Ferrer (from Sipalay City), all employees of the Zamboanga-based Mega Fishing Corp., according to a report on news site Visayan Daily Star. An initial investigation showed the three were fishing off Menes Island in Sulo on March 19, when armed men boarded their tugboat and took them at gunpoint. Col. Abraham Bagasin, commander of the Army’s elite Scout Ranger Regiment, said the newly-created Special Operations Task Force, composed of Scout Ranger and Special Forces Battalions, and 32nd Infantry Battalion, is helping in the rescue of the kidnapped fishermen. Government troops have so far recovered Panisales' Seaman's Book and personal belongings of the slain gunmen at the encounter site. Panisales’ wife Jocelyn said they were told by the management of Mega Fishing Corporation of the firm's “no ransom policy," and that they should negotiate for the release of her husband. Initially, the abductors had demanded P20 million, which was later reduced to P10 million, and recently to P4 million for each of them. Jocelyn, who said she managed to establish contact with the abductors, said she was told the suspects’ actual target was the owner of the fishing company. For her part, Ocsimar’s wife Marivic said she was also dismayed by the response of the management to the abduction of her husband. Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu Jr., chief of the Philippine National Police Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao, said the three fishermen may have been brought to the jungles of Patikul, Sulu, where they made contact with the Zamboanga City-based fishing company for ransom. — LBG, GMA News