Militants free nurse hostage

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-9  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AL-QAIDA-LINKED militants have freed a nurse they held hostage for four months in the southern Philippines after her family paid a ransom, officials said yesterday.

Regional police chief Bensali Jabarani said members of the Abu Sayyaf group handed over Preciosa Feliciano late on Friday to authorities on Basilan island near the port city of Zamboanga.

Gunmen snatched the 24-year-old nurse in July and took her by boat to Basilan. Her family said she was missing for a week before the kidnappers called asking for ransom.

The victim's elder brother, Ben Feliciano, has told reporters the family paid 2 million pesos (US$40,000) to the kidnappers. The family also gave them a motorcycle and an M-16 rifle, he said.

The Abu Sayyaf are holding two other hostages for ransom ?? nursing student Joed Anthony Pilangga and aid worker Millett Mendoza.

Pilangga was kidnapped in Zamboanga last month. Mendoza was kidnapped in September with four other fellow aid workers on Basilan, but three of them were immediately freed.

The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for kidnapping, beheading hostages and bombings and is on a US list of terror groups.