Ransomed?

First it was Fox News Channel which reported late last month that a $3-million ransom had been paid for American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham. Yesterday it was the Washington Times newspaper which said the US government had facilitated the ransom payment but the correct amount was $300,000.

The money reportedly came from a private organization. The Pentagon is said to have opposed the payment but the State Department gave the go-signal and the money was paid before Easter. That coincided with rumors abounding in Basilan that ransom had indeed been paid. Our report from the field during Holy Week was that the Burnhams were already in a safehouse awaiting a staged rescue.

So what happened? The Burnhams still aren’t free. If the Washington Times report is true, someone has been swindled of $300,000. In that part of the Philippines, one always has to keep in mind that a fool and his money are soon parted. All deals must be C.O.D., especially when talking with a grinning bandit.

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The rumors of a ransom payment for the Burnhams have been so persistent that one exasperated captain in the Army’s elite Scout Ranger Regiment based in Isabela, Basilan recently went on leave for nearly a week. He had lost several men hunting down the Abu Sayyaf thugs and their hostages, the captain grumbled, and now the Burnhams’ freedom will simply be bought? "Kung pera-pera lang ang laban ayoko na," the captain was overheard griping. (Loose translation: "If it’s all about money I quit.")

Journalists have packed up, too. They started leaving when it dawned on them that the Basilan theater, if you can call it that, is nothing like Afghanistan or Israel and the West Bank.

Local Manila-based journalists, holdouts expecting to cover the release of the Burnhams and Filipina nurse Deborah Yap, also left shortly after Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni was recovered. The journalists felt military and police officials kept Pierantoni away from the press in Zamboanga, preferring to present him to the press at Malacañang hours later. Those hours could have given the government ample time to fine-tune the official script for Pierantoni’s release. But the presentation of the priest still turned out messy and did not douse speculation that ransom was also paid.

Amid rumors of ransom payments, there’s a race to get the hostages, particularly the Burnhams. Units from the Rangers, Marines and the police Special Action Force are directly involved in the pursuit operations in Basilan. In Zamboanga City where the US troops are based, incoming national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and National Bureau of Investigation Director Reynaldo Wycoco have been spotted twice or three times in recent weeks.

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With money always changing hands, we’ll never see the end of kidnapping in Mindanao. Even the "board and lodging fee" for hostages is substantial. The jungles of Basilan and Sulu have to be the most expensive accommodations in the world.

If the military and police can’t get the kidnappers, they should at least get some of the people facilitating those ransom payments, because these people are surely getting a commission for their efforts.

Just consider the Abu Sayyaf raid on Dos Palmas. It took the raiders four days to rush back to Basilan from Palawan across the Sulu Sea in a powerful kumpit with their hostages. The buzz in Palawan last year was that the kidnappers took longer to go to Dos Palmas from Basilan, even stopping by Puerto Princesa for some R&R before proceeding to the island resort in Honda Bay. The raiders headed straight for the bay cottages, the ones sitting on the water, and rounded up the guests. The raid was over in about 15 minutes.

For the Abu Sayyaf to undertake that long trip across a vast expanse of water in a motorized boat, they must have been pretty sure their efforts would pay off. They must have had at least one particular target in mind. In this case the only one I can think of is the richest and most prominent among the victims, multimillionaire contractor Reghis Romero II.

Someone who knows "R-II" and has contacts with the Abu Sayyaf could have facilitated that raid. Romero has consistently denied that he paid ransom. But if lawmen are still interested, they can try to find out who knew Romero was going to Dos Palmas. Romero can always change his story about the ransom, which few people believe anyway.

But if he talks, will it discourage more kidnappings? He’s just following the government’s tack: Pay up, then shut up.