MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) — Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza confirmed that five Malaysian tugboat crewmen who went missing off Sabah’s waters on Monday, July 18 have been kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf militant group.
In a report in Channel News Asia, it said that Malaysian authorities found an empty tugboat with its engine still running on Monday in the waters off Lahad Datu.
Sabah police commissioner Abdul Rashid Harun on Tuesday, July 19 said he could not confirm the whereabouts of the five men, but did not rule out the possibility of abduction.
Malaysian deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi believed that the kidnap-for-ransom groups that are based in the southern Philippines are behind the latest abductions.