Hostages given a horse, ask for Jollibee

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – They were glad to be alive, and they hungered for Jollibee.

Visibly thinner, disoriented and with overgrown hair and beard, two Filipino television crew members walked to freedom Saturday night after eight months as captives of the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Sulu.

“We’re so happy. We went through so much difficulty. We never thought we’d make it out alive,” cameraman Ramel Vela said in tears in his hospital bed.

He and audio technician Roland Letriro said they had not seen Jordanian journalist Baker Abdulla Atyani since they were separated five days after they were kidnapped on June 13 last year. The kidnappers have refused to release Atyani.

Sources said ransom was paid for the two men, although no amount was specified. The kidnappers reportedly took pity on Vela, whose leg was swollen, and put him on a horse as the two left the jungle lair unescorted.

Sulu provincial police director Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra said Letriro and Vela were freed at around 6 p.m. Saturday, but he could not say what prompted the Abu Sayyaf to free the two hostages.

Atyani, bureau chief of the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel, and his Filipino crew had gone to Sulu to interview the Abu Sayyaf .

The two Filipinos were released from the Abu Sayyaf camp at Kuta Kan Masarin, Barangay Buhanginan, Patikul town, according to Police Superintendent Glenn Roy Gabor, officer-in-charge of the Sulu police.

He said after Vela had dismounrted from the horse, the two took a tricycle to the port to catch a ferry for Zamboanga City. When they missed the ferry, they had the tricycle driver bring them to the ANR Hotel in Jolo instead. There they called their families.

It was at the hotel where the police, alerted by an anti-kidnapping group, found the two victims at 10 p.m. The two were brought to the Integrated Provincial Hospital Office for medical check-up.

“They were a bit confused. They said they were just told to leave the hostage lair,” Gabor told the Agence France Presse.

Citing reports from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. said authorities received a call from Vela Saturday informing them that he and Letriro had been released.

Atyani was working for the Arabic satellite channel Middle East Broadcasting Corp. when he interviewed Osama bin Laden and his aides in Afghanistan about three months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He said they told him that the coming weeks would hold “important surprises that will target American and Israeli interests in the world.”

He later moved to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV as its Asia bureau chief. He traveled to Sulu to work on a documentary about the country’s volatile south and possibly interview Abu Sayyaf militants in the impoverished province, police said.

Meanwhile, Malacañang welcomed the release of the two Filipinos.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said President Aquino has been informed of the development but they have yet to receive updates on the whereabouts of Atyani.

“We will leave the operational details to our security forces to share with the public as they deem fit,” she said. – Roel Pareño, Non Alquitran, Alexis Romero, AP