Published: Tuesday August 6, 2013 MYT 3:27:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday August 6, 2013 MYT 6:49:11 PM
Malaysian escapes from his Filipino kidnappers
Chong Wei Fei and his cousin Chong Wei Jie who were abducted in Lahad Datu in November 2012.
PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian who was kidnapped in Lahad Datu in Sabah last year has escaped from his kidnappers in Jolo, southern Philippines.
A Philippine policeman found Chong Wei Jie, a 25-year-old assistant manager, walking on the highway in the village of Pasil at around 7am Tuesday and asked him if he needed help.
Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Wei Jie told authorities that his cousin Chong Wei Fei, a 33-year-old plantation manager, had died of illness while in captivity.
Deputy director of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao Jose Bayani Gucela said Wei Jie told policeman Baltazar Sawabi that he was one of two Malaysians who were abducted in Lahad Datu on Nov. 13 last year.
“We still don’t have the complete details of how they were abducted and what kind of illness afflicted his cousin,” said Col. Jose Johriel Cenabre, commander of the Joint Task Force Sulu.
Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Gucela said Wei Jie was taken to the Sulu Provincial Hospital in Jolo island for a medical check up.
He was to be transferred later to Zamboanga City for a debriefing.
In a daring well-planned kidnap mission on Nov 13 last year, five men in military fatigues and armed with two M-16 rifles held up Wei Fei and Wei Jie while they were with their bosses and workers inspecting their bird's nest farmhouse at their oil palm plantation near Kampung Manakayan.
All were asked to hand over their mobile phones and valuables and ordered to leave the area while the gunmen marched the Chongs and two others, including a worker, for about 2km to the sea shore where a 10m boat waited.
The gunmen decided to take Wei Fei and Wei Jie with them and before speeding off to the Celebes sea, reportedly told the two others "ada wang no problem" (if you have money, there should not be any problem), for the release of the victims.
On Friday, The Star published the photographs of the cousins, believed to be taken on March 7 in Jolo.
Published: Tuesday August 6, 2013 MYT 6:43:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday August 6, 2013 MYT 7:45:18 PM
Police in the dark over report Malaysian kidnap victim escaped
BY STEPHANIE LEE
Chong Wei Jie.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police are in the dark over Philippines news reports on the escape of abducted assistant plantation manager Chong Wei Jie, 25, and the death of his cousin Chong Wei Fei, 33, in the southern Philippine island of Jolo.
State Police Commssioner Datuk Hamza Taib said they had not received any information or calls from their Philippines counterparts on the fate of Wei Jie and Wei Fei.
“I have checked with the Bukit Aman Anti Terrorism Task Force and they have not received any information about the matter either,’’ he said when contacted on Tuesday.
Hamza said he had met with Wei Fei’s father in Kota Kinabalu who told him that their family had not received any word about the reported escape.
The Philippines news reports brought joy and sadness among friends of the Chong family knowing that Wei Jie escaped from his Abu Sayyaf captors in Jolo but his cousin Wei Fei had died about a month ago.
He said the news was difficult to accept as it both good and bad for the family.
“The families have been praying for the safe return of the two,’’ said a friend of the family who have stayed away from any media interviews and could not be reached following the latest development.
The two cousins were abducted from their family’s bird’s nest farm in an oil palm plantation at Tambisan about 160kms from Lahad Datu by five men armed with M.16 rifles on Nov 13 last year.
The family friend explained that the Chong family hoped to be updated on the latest situation.
The Chong family had come to Sabah from peninsular Malaysia in early 2000 after the pig farms were closed following the nipah virus incident.
Wei Jie’s father had also died during that time.
Wei Fei was the manager for the family’s plantation while Wei Jie was the supervisor when they were grabbed from the farm.
