3 tugboat crewmen now held by another group in Tawi-Tawi

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The military confirmed yesterday that another Abu Sayyaf group led by one Wajan Asman is now holding captive three crewmembers of a tugboat kidnapped in waters close to Tawi-Tawi last April.

This, after Abu Sayyaf leader Ayub Bakil, whose group was earlier holding them captive, was killed along with two henchmen, both his relatives, in a clash with a Navy special warfare group in a remote village in Languyan, Tawi-Tawi last Friday.

Navy Capt. Feliciano Angue, chief of Naval Task Force 62, an anti-terror unit, said Indonesian Walter Sampel, 53, skipper of tugboat M/L Ocean 2, and crewmembers Toh Chiu Tiong, 48, and Wong Siu Ung, 52, both Malaysians, are now in the hands of Asman’s group.

Angue said Asman, along with Albader Parad, another Abu Sayyaf leader, leads some 40 armed followers on the mountains of Languyan Island.

"The group has been very mobile so we need the cooperation of the villagers to monitor their movements," he said.

Bakil and his men were apparently looking for new hideouts in Languyan when soldiers, tipped off about their presence, surprised the bandits.

Angue said the bandits managed to procure new firearms using ransom paid for the release of six divers seized last year from a resort in the nearby eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.