Philippine authorities make contact with abductors of 2 US citizens

Jul 18, 2011, 4:12 GMT

Manila - Philippine authorities have made contact with Muslim militants who allegedly abducted two US citizens and a Filipino relative last week, a local official said Monday.

The kidnappers have demanded ransom for the hostages, but Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat declined to confirm that the amount was 10 million dollars.

Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 50; her 14-year-old son, Kevin; and a Filipino nephew, Romnick Jakaria, 19, were abducted July 12 at a beach resort near Zamboanga City, 875 kilometres south of Manila.

Lobregat, who also heads the local crisis management committee, said the military and police were validating numerous reports about the kidnappers and the whereabouts of the hostages.

'All we can say is there was contact [with the kidnappers] and there was a demand,' he said. 'That is all I can say. I don't want to jeopardize the efforts.'

The military initially blamed the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group for the kidnapping and reported that the hostages had been taken to nearby Basilan province.

But Lobregat said there was also information that the hostages were being held by rogue members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

A military official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the ransom demand was relayed through a brief phone call to Lunsmann's husband, Hiko Lunsmann.

'The kidnappers allowed the wife to talk to her husband,' the official said. 'There is already proof of life. They are indeed with the kidnappers, and the mother and child are alive.'

'It was just a one-minute phone call to Mr Lunsmann in Virginia,' he added.

Gerfa Lunsmann is a native of Tictabon village on Sacol Island off Zamboanga City. She was adopted by a US couple when she was 9. She and her son arrived in the village about two weeks ago on vacation.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for high-profile kidnappings for ransom and deadly terrorist attacks in the country while the MILF is the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the Philippines.

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