Abu Sayyaf

MANILA — A television news team from the Philippines’ largest network, including one of the country’s best-known journalists, was believed to have been abducted by members of the militant group Abu Sayyaf, officials said Tuesday. The journalist, Ces Drilon, a senior reporter for ABS-CBN, was with her cameraman and driver when they were intercepted on Sunday by armed men in Sulu, a province in the south where Abu Sayyaf and other Islamic extremists are known to operate, the police said... Read Full Story

Well-known television reporter Ces Drilon and two of her crew have been abducted while pursuing a story in the southernmost province Sulu by armed men believed to members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group, police officials said. ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. said in a statement that Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama were “missing in Sulu” and that “all efforts are underway to find them and bring them home.” Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, police regional director for the... Read Full Story

Manila, 23 Jan. (AKI) - Foreign Christian missionaries serving in the conflict-ridden island of Mindanao in the Philippines are to be guarded by armed soldiers as the threat of kidnapping for ransom by Islamic radicals rises. Senior Superintendent Fransisco Cristobal said that soldiers will be deployed "within shooting range" of churches and convents in mainland Mindanao and in the small islets that surround it. "We are now initiating safety precautions to protect our local and foreign... Read Full Story

Two Philippine television journalists may be released within the next few hours by Islamic militants on a remote southern island, the country's police chief said on Tuesday. Ces Drilon, one of the Philippines' best-known TV reporters, would be released from captivity after her kidnappers scrapped a noon ransom deadline. Members of the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group kidnapped Drilon, two cameramen and a professor acting as their guide on June 8 and demanded 15 million pesos ($338,000) for their... Read Full Story

The ABS-CBN anchor reporter, Ces Oreña-Drilon, and two of her colleagues have been abducted by Abu Sayyaf gangsters in Sulu, Philippines last week. The ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. is trying hard to find them and bring them home. Their families, relatives and friends are now very worried about them. Anyway, here is the latest update about the case. Police in the Philippines say a Filipina television reporter and her crew who were abducted this weekend are alive and well. The group, kidnapped... Read Full Story