Anything Under the Sun

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- THE negotiators were asking for broadcast journalist Ces Drilon, and got her cameraman, Angelo Valderama.

Valderama was released Thursday night by a still unknown group of gunmen to members of the Indanan police in a forested area of Sitio Danasih in Barangay Sinumaan, Talipao, Sulu. He was among the four people—an ABS-CBN team of three and a professor of the Mindanao State University—abducted in Maimbung, Sulu, on Sunday.

“Our objective is to secure Ces and the whole team,” Indanan Mayor Alvarez Isnaji , one of the negotiators, yesterday told the Inquirer on the phone. “[The abductors] are the ones making the decisions, not us, and it was they who released Valderama.”

Drilon, her other cameraman, Jimmy Encarnacion, and Prof. Octavio Dinampo, a peace advocate, are still being held by their captors.

In a press conference held in Jolo, Sulu, Isnaji said he and his fellow negotiator, Sulu Vice Gov. Lady Ann Sahidulla, had asked the abductors to release Drilon.

“We asked for a release. We requested the release of Ces or even just one of their victims. I was expecting it to be Ces, but instead they sent Angelo,” he said.

Immediately after his release, Valderama was taken by policemen to the residence of Isnaji, where he stayed overnight. He was flown to Zamboanga City yesterday.

Isnaji refused to give details of Valderama’s release, saying it might jeopardize the negotiations for the freedom of the remaining captives.