Monday, January 12, 2009
MANILA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Fifty-four Filipino
seamen remain in the hands of their ransom-seeking Somali captors after
36 of their colleagues were freed over the weekend, the Philippine
Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
The remaining sailors are crew members of the
four ships that are still in the custody of the pirates in Somalia,
namely: the MTAfrican Sanderling (hijacked on Oct. 15), MT Stolt
Strength (hijacked on Nov. 11), Tianyu No. 8 (hijacked on Nov. 14), and
the MV Chemstar Venus (hijacked on Nov. 16).
On Friday, 19 Filipino crew members
of the oil tanker MV SiriusStar that was hijacked Nov. 15 were released
along with several other foreign crewmen of the ship.
On the following day, another group of 17 Filipino sailors of Iranian cargo vessel MV Delight were released.
Bayani Mangibin, spokesman of the
Department of Foreign Affairs, said that concerned Philippine
diplomatic posts were instructed to coordinate with international
authorities to ensure the safety and early release of the remaining
Filipino hostages.
Philippine officials said in the
past that the government does neither pay ransom nor negotiate directly
with kidnappers as a policy.
It has been a publicly known,
however, that owners of hijacked ships have paid huge amounts to ransom
off their crew, including dozens of Filipinos, from Somali pirates.
The Philippines supplies a third of
all of the world's sailors. The 350,000 Filipino sailors operate
everywhere, manning major oil tankers, luxury liners and passenger
vessels and exposing them to pirate attacks in dangerous regions.
Manila has been in a dilemma on how
to provide protection. It says banning Filipinos from certain risky
regions would be difficult because of the rapid mobility of the sailors
and its lack of ability to monitor their movement.
SOURCE: Xinhua, Monday, January 12, 2009