Crew freed after nine days

A PHILLIPPINE TV crew was held for nine days but released unharmed by an armed rebel group in June.

The three-strong crew — reporter Ces Drilon, camera operator Jimmy Encarnacion and a university professor they were working with, Ocatavio Dinampo, were freed after negotiations conducted by government officials.

They said their abductors had treated them well, but “in a perverse kind of way”.

The kidnappers from the Abu Sayyaf group had demanded a ransom of $340,000. The government insisted that no ransom demand was met but officials admitted they had paid the kidnappers’ “board and lodging fees” — a common euphemism for ransom money.

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists