Three Filipino energy industry workers kidnapped in Nigeria have been freed and handed over to Philippine embassy officials, the foreign department said on Monday.
Cornelio Fallaria (51), Daniel Monteagudo (49) and Alberto Torres (50) were turned over to embassy officials, Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos told reporters after briefing President Gloria Arroyo.
The three were abducted on August 4 on Bonny Island, where they were working for Overseas Technical Services Nigeria on a multibillion-dollar liquefied natural-gas project.
The foreign department said they were freed on Sunday after their employer ”negotiated for their release”. It gave no other details of the negotiations. No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions.
The national police spokesperson in Nigeria, Haz Iwendi, confirmed to Agence France-Presse the release of the three Filipinos.
”Yes, I know that they have been released. They were unhurt. But I still do not have all the details surrounding the release,” he said.
Diplomats in the Philippine embassy in the Nigerian capital Abuja were on Monday in Port Harcourt to receive the freed hostages, an embassy official said.
There was no immediate word on Didone Shephard, a German kidnapped along with his driver in the oil city of Port Harcourt near Bonny Island the same week.
The past seven months have seen a wave of kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities and personnel by separatist agitators in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria’s multibillion-dollar oil and gas wealth. — AFP
