Hostage beheaded in southern Philippines
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A Filipino kidnap victim had been beheaded after being held hostage by militants for a month in the restive southern Philippine island of Basilan, a local official said Thursday.
Basilan Vice Governor Al-Rasheed Sakalahul, Chairman of Basilan Crisis Management Committee, said the head of Marquez Singson was recovered late Wednesday night by officials in the province. The family has identified the victim but the headless body remains missing.
Sakalahul said investigation disclosed that the decapitated head was wrapped in a bag and dumped by two unidentified teenagers near a public plaza in Isabela city. Earlier responders thought it was a bomb.
Singson, employee of a local plywood factory, was kidnapped along with two of his colleagues in early November in the remote Maluso town of Basilan, a stronghold of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants.
Basilan authorities and the plywood factory owner George Tan said the two remaining hostages are Chinese nationals but the Chinese Consulate General in Cebu said they are still verifying the hostages' identities.
The execution came after George Tan turned down the kidnappers' ransom demand of 1.5 million pesos (32,609 U.S. dollars).
"The kidnappers have earlier warned to execute one of their captive if the employer and the family will not comply with the 1. 5-million-peso board and lodging fee," Sakalahul said.
