Five armed kidnappers claiming to be policemen

LAHAD DATU - The air, sea and land search for the two kidnapped victims entered its fourth day today with no demands yet from their abductors.

Police said the navy was helping in the effort as the group had sped from the Felda settlement in Tungku near here to international waters, possibly to one of the many islands in the Southern Philippines which is just a half hours boat ride away.

Up to late Saturday, there was no communication from the group said to have been armed with M16 rifles but further details of what transpired last Wednesday afternoon, the day of the kidnapping, have now been released.

According to plantation worker, Benny Suriya, who was with his bosses Chong Hong Xiong, and Wong Dao Xiong of Lian Hin Lee Plantation Sdn Bhd, who were inspecting their birds’ nest farmhouse together with the victims when the incident took place, the five armed men had approached them claiming to be policemen.

Recounting what transpired to state CID chief, Omar Mama, who visited the crime scene Saturday afternoon accompanied by Chong and Wong and other police officers, he said they had just collected some of the birds nests when they were approached by the group of five armed men.

Chong and some of his workers were then asked to hand over their cellphones and valuables and asked to leave while the gunmen continued to detain Wong, Suriya, the two missing men, Chong Wei Fei, 33, the son of plantation boss Chong and Chong Wei Jie, 25, his nephew.

The four were then bound, told they were being taken to the police station for questioning, and marched at gunpoint towards the sea about two kilometres away where a boat was moored by the beach.

Suriya claimed that he asked his abductors if they knew where the police station was but was told to keep quiet and just walk. He said he was also asked by one of the men if he was a Muslim and he said he lied to them that he was.

He noted however that the only man who was masked never uttered a word either to them or the others.

Both Suriya and Wong said they were constantly prodded in the back by the gun-wielding men to walk faster until they reached the boat which Suriya estimated to be over 10 meters long.

At the beach the gunmen seemed to make up their minds to take only the two victims with them and ordered Wong to hand over his gold chain, rings, watch, cellphone and all his cash.
Kalau ada wang…

The gunmen then hauled the two kidnap victims onboard their vessel and sped of towards open seas telling Wong who asked about releasing the two, “kalau ada wang no problem”.

The released duo, still bound, managed to free themselves a short while later and rushed to the nearest police station to lodge a report about the kidnap.

Wong also told reporters that he had called the cellphone taken from him about an hour after the incident and was answered by an accented voice which asked in well-known Sulug slang “who is this?” and “what do you want?” before hanging up.

Chong said the safe return of his son and nephew, who are the the manager and assistance manager of the plantation company, was all that mattered to him and refused to comment further.

The incident has left the state government and police here with a bloody nose after insisting that security in the east coast, which had experienced several incidents of lawlessness for years including cross-border crimes linked to terrorism, is guaranteed.

Several foreign embassies including the US, have issued alerts from time to time to their citizens to avoid the east coast areas of the state after receiving intelligence reports of planned kidnappings and other threats by Southern Philippines linked militant groups.

Such reports and incidents have however dwindled over the last year with the last major incident being a kidnapping in 2010.

This incident lays bare the fact that Sabah’s east coast border, despite extra security measures having been put in place, remains porous and illegal entry or exit from the state can done at will.

Thomas Pi