“It’s a attractive feeling”, said the Norwegian.
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A plan to fly the freed hostage out of Sulu, a jungle-clad Muslim region about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of Manila, on Saturday was scrapped because of bad weather, Dureza said.
MESSAGES of thanks are rolling in for the Philippine government and President Rodrigo Duterte after months of negotiation and weeks of fighting with Abu Sayyaf militants finally paid off last weekend with the release of four hostages – three Indonesians and a Norwegian.
Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesperson of Western Mindanao Command, said sustained military operations led to the freeing of Daniela Taruc and Levy Gonzales in Panglima Estino town in Sulu on Sunday night.
Abu Sayyaf, which specializes in kidnapping foreigners and demanding ransoms, has been accused of carrying out a number of deadly attacks across the Philippines.
Speaking at a military gathering in an army base, Duterte said: “The Abu Sayyaf no longer hungers for independence in Mindanao. If there is a group there still remaining, could you just bring them here and we will just let them loose somewhere in Basilan”.
“What we do know is that we have been concentrating on the launch of all our operations and all our activities on the ground have been indicative of the increasing pressure felt by these groups”, Padilla said.
Military chief Gen Ricardo Visaya warned the militants to release their other captives, including a Dutch birdwatcher and Indonesian and Malaysian tugboat crewmen, “or suffer annihilation”.
Two of them, both men from Canada, were later killed by Abu Sayyaf when ransom demands were not met.
Duterte himself had said as much in an interview with reporters on August 25, when he mentioned that P50 million had been paid for the Norwegian’s release.
Sekkingstad, 56, said after his release he was treated “like a slave” by the group, which is linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
Mr Sekkingstad was kidnapped from a yacht club he helped managed on southern Samal Island in September 2015 along with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and Mr Hall’s Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor.
Several units of the Abu Sayyaf in the strife-torn southern Philippines have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group but analysts have said they are more interested in funding than ideology.
Flor was dropped off by her captors in front of the residence of former Sulu Governor Sakur Tan at around 4:30 a.m. on June 24 and was presented to then President-electDuterte onstage at the Davao City Police Office parade grounds almost 12 hours later, after the turnover of command from chief of police, Sr.
“He is well”, Dureza said, adding that Sekkingstad would be handed over to authorities on Sunday and then flown to the southern city of Davao.
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The victims were on the way to the cellsite of a telecom firm in Bagsak, Talipao, when the Abu Sayyaf bandits flagged them down in Timpook.
