Held Hostage

Loud pounding on the cabin door awoke Julian Philip on Friday, March 25. That afternoon, at around 3:30pm local time, the chief officer of the Brahma 12 ship had just closed his eyes after being on guard duty for four hours. Half-awake, he opened the door to a cabin located in the lower part of the ship. Behind the door, two men with face masks suddenly pointed an M14 rifle in his face. "I put my hands up and followed their sign to go up," said Julian, who spoke to Tempo last week.

When Julian reached the bridge, he became even more frightened. He saw nine other crew members with their hands and feet bound. They were lined up in the ship's command room. Seven were standing and three sat. Eight armed hostage-takers dressed in jackets of the Philippine National Police stood around the hostages. They said that they were from the Abu Sayyaf group. "They shouted, 'You know Abu Sayyaf, you know'," said one other crew member Suriyansah.

May 10, 2016