In a KFR, or Kidnap for Ransom, entry for the First Quarter of 2011 I detailed the case of the sardine boat M/V Mega 8, out of Zamboanga City. Crewed mostly by men from Negros Island in the Visayas Region (Central Philippines), and owned by the Mega Fishing Corporation, they had been moored off of Menes Island which is itself part of the tiny Panglima Tahil Island group off of Jolo Island, the largest island in the Sulu Archipelago. Panglima Tahil is generally considered to be a safe mooring in Sulu because it is controlled by an MNLF faction that fully committed itself to the 1996 Jakarta Agreement between the Government and the MNLF. On the evening of March 19th, 2011 however, that changed.
As the crew was busying itself with evening chores when they were suprised by a boatload of ASG, or Abu Sayyaf Group, gunmen carrying assault rifles who brusquely demanded the ship's "officers." Three men stepped forward:
1) Renato "Rennie" Panisales, Captain
2) Wennie Ferrer, Engineer
3) Jonald Oscimar, Quartermaster
The three men were herded over the side of their craft and into an idling pumpboat (a local term used to describe small motorised skiffs) which then set a course for Jolo Island. Aside from some quick Proof of Life phone calls to their wives, and some papers found in a jungle clearing after a heavy firefight that killed three ASG guerillas on Jolo Island little had been known about the men and their fate. Initially ASG had aimed to extort the owner of Mega Fishing but he refused to play ball, taking it to the extreme of even refusing to meet with the wife of Jonald Oscimar, Maria Victoria, or Marivic Oscimar, who had been chosen by the other two wives to act as their liason with both Mega Fishing AND the ASG. Undaunted, Marivic was able to finally negotiate what is euphamistically known as a "Room and Lodging Fee." From the initial demand of P4 Million per fisherman ($85,000) the Abu Sayyaf then re-packaged the three men at a higher group rate at P20 Million ($450,000), but all that was before they realised that Mega wouldn't be paying a single centavo. A "Room and Lodging Fee" allows the guerillas to generate a very modest profit while saving face. The alternative would of course involve the decapitation of the three captives.
On Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 Oscimar's relatives arrived in Barangay Kaunayan, in the municipality of Patikul where they handed over P300,000 ($6,500), which although a whole lot less than the previously demanded sums still represents a virtual fortune to people like the Oscimar family. The next evening, just after sunset, in Patikul's Barangay Buhanginan, a small band of guerillas delivered a happy Jonald Oscimar to his very relieved family. Mr.Oscimar is now back home on Negros enjoying his freedom.
However, his two mates, Renato Panisales and Wennie Ferrer remain in captivity as their impovershed families struggle against all odds to raise their own "Room and Lodging Fees."
Another happy reunion took place on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 when 16 year old Nico Sebastian of Basilan Island was released. Young Nico had recently run into a close friend who he hadn't see in a year. His pal, Nadzmir "Marvin" Abubakar, had seemingly fallen off of the face of the earth. As I described in yet another of my Kidnap for Ransom entries, this one having been in the Second Quarter, Abubakar, who also goes by the moniker "Totoh" had recommended that he and Nico catch up on old times and invited him to drop by his home. Nico, whose mother supports the family by slash and burn farming, breezily informed his mother of his plans and left for Abubakar's home. When he failed to return his family reported him missing but it wasn't until they had received a ransom demand for P2.5 Million ($55,000) that the authorities were willing to conceed that a KFR had indeed taken place.
It became clear after a summary investigation that Nico's friend, Abubakar, had disappeared for a year because he had joined the 114 Base Command of the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed component of the MILF. Abubakar's conduit into the BIAF was a young man named Arasad Jion, or as his good friends usually call him, "sub-Kumander Jion." When the 114 Base Command realised that poor Nico was the son of a struggling landless peasant they sold him to the ASG, specifically to sub-Kumander Hadjarun Jamiri who has been making a name for himself in KFR activities as of late. Hardly turning a profit on Nico they accepted a "Room and Lodging Fee" of P175,000 ($3,250), and released the teenager on the border of Tuburan and al Barka municipalities, on Basilan.
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