“The government will do everything possible to free these hostages”, Marsudi was quoted by The Bangkok Post as telling reporters.
Advertisement
Earlier this week, Abu Sayyaf militants have abducted seven crew members of an Indonesian tugboat that passed through the Sulu archipelago.
– Picture by Antara Foto via ReutersJAKARTA, June 24 – Jakarta banned today any Indonesian-flagged vessels from sailing to the Philippines, the transport ministry said, after yet another violent kidnapping in the strife-torn waters between the two nations.
Up to 18 Indonesians and Malaysians were kidnapped in three attacks on tugboats earlier this year in Philippine waters by groups suspected of ties to Abu Sayyaf.
Seven Indonesian sailors have been taken hostage in the Sulu Sea in the southern Philippines, Indonesia’s foreign minister said on Friday, the latest in a string of abductions in the waters between the two Southeast Asian neighbors.
Sulu is a stronghold of the ISIL-affiliated Abu Sayyaf militant group that had a role in recent kidnappings of Indonesian and Malaysian sailors.
This year it murdered two Canadian men when their ransoms were not paid.
14 Indonesians were abducted in two separate assaults on tugboats in March and April but were freed in May.
Indonesia supplies 70 percent of the Philippines’ coal import needs, which Indonesian data shows stood at about 15 million tons, worth around $800 million, last year.
Filipino captive Marites Flor was released at dawn on Friday near the house of the governor of the southern island of Jolo and was undergoing a medical checkup at an army hospital, the army said.
According to Retno, the Indonesian government has also called on the Philippine government to guarantee the security situation in the southern Philippine waters to keep economic activities in the region undisrupted. Mr Hall was beheaded on June 13.
Indonesian media reported that the boat captain phoned his wife and told her that they were intercepted at sea by gunmen, who introduced themselves as Abu Sayyaf and were demanding 20 million ringgits for their safe release.
Advertisement
“There will be additional transportation costs if the coal will come from Australia or Russian Federation so that means additional costs”, said Rino Abad from the Philippine department of energy.
