Sayyaf frees female nurse

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the southern Philippines released a kidnapped nurse they had been holding for four months after payment of a hefty ransom, authorities said yesterday.

Preciosa Feliciano, 24, was turned over to a local official in Basilan late Friday and brought by the military to this city yesterday.

Basilan Vice Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakalahul said Feliciano was released at around 9:30 p.m. Friday in Sitio Bohe Kasa, Barangay Magkawa, Al-Barka town in Basilan.

She was kidnapped on July 7 by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group linked by intelligence agencies to the al-Qaeda terror network.

Feliciano said she had largely been kept alone in a house and had just been abruptly informed that she was being freed.

She said she and her parents “were crying a lot” when they were finally reunited in Basilan.

Fernando Feliciano said his family initially paid P1.5 million along with an M-16 rifle and a motorcycle for the release of his daughter but the kidnappers had demanded an additional P400,000. He admitted paying an additional P200,000 for “board and lodging.”

Two others – aid worker Millet Mendoza and nursing student Joed Anthony Pilangga – are still being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf but Feliciano said she did not see them during her captivity. Pilangga was kidnapped in Zamboanga last month.

Mendoza was kidnapped in September along with four other fellow aid workers in Basilan, but three of them were immediately released. The other hostage, Esperancita Hupida, was released late last month after her family paid P2 million in ransom.

The kidnappers have allegedly demanded about P90 million in ransom – P72 million for Mendoza and P20 million for Pilangga – for the two remaining hostages.

Thirty-three people have reportedly been kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf and close to P50 million paid in ransom.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of militants who are on the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. The group is responsible for the country’s worst terrorist attack, the 2004 firebombing of a passenger ferry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people, and for a string of high-profile abductions targeting foreigners and Christians.

Victims of the abductions have assailed the government for the failure to recover their relatives or stop the kidnappings.

“There is a growing frustration and disappointment among the relatives and friends of the victims over the way authorities are dealing with the cases. There’s no public attention given since these victims are not well-known people,” a statement issued by relatives of kidnap victims said. – Roel Pareño, AP