Composite picture of the 3 abduction victims in Basilan - Michael Tan, Mark Singson and Oscar Tan Lu

MANILA, Philippines – Officials confirmed Wednesday that 1 of the 3 abducted employees of a plywood factory in Maluso town in Basilan province was beheaded.

Basilan Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul and Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie confirmed that the head of Filipino worker Marquez Singson was recovered Wednesday night.

Tulawie, Basilan police director, said the severed head of Singson was found inside a bag left along the highway near the plaza of Isabela City in Basilan past 7 p.m.

He said that a security guard, who was posted near the area where the severed head was found, relayed the information that a boy left the bag.

Tulawie said that the security guard said he could not recognize the boy and could not also pinpoint where the boy went after leaving the bag near the plaza.

The provincial police chief said that George Tan, the owner of the plywood company where Singson was employed in, recently received a call from the kidnappers who demanded P1.5 million for “board and lodging.”

The term “board and lodging” is usually the term used by the bandit group Abu Sayyaf for a ransom payment which would be usually lower than the initial demand. Tan, had reportedly received an initial ransom demand of P6 to P10 million for the release of the victims.

Local authorities and Sakalahul, who is also the chairman of the province’s crisis management committee, advised Tan not to entertain the demand.

Tan, however, reportedly insisted on trying to meet the demand but later failed to meet what the abductors were asking.

Tulawie said Singson’s family has already been informed about the brutal killing of their kin.

Families receiving calls

The provincial police chief, meanwhile, assured that Michael Tan and Oscar Dee also known as Oscar Lu. the two Chinese nationals who are still in the hands of the kidnappers, are still alive.

He said the families of the two kidnapped foreigners have been receiving calls from the kidnappers and have recently been given a chance to talk to the victims themselves.

Police and military officials in Basilan have blamed the Abu Sayyaf Group as responsible for the abductions. Puruji Indama, a leader of the bandit group, is believed to be behind the abduction.

The 3 were seized by dozens of armed men last November 10 at the premises of Hi-Tech Plywood factory at Townsite village in Maluso town.

Two days after the kidnapping of the 3, police arrested a suspect in the incident in Maluso who was identified as Muhajid Jumdiya Nasirin.

Maluso Mayor Sakib Salajin, however, said that Nasirin is the brother of one of his militiamen and defended the arrested suspect.

Al Qaeda linked

Founded in the early 1990s by Afghan-trained Islamic firebrand Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani with seed money from Osama bin Laden, the Abu Sayyaf or "Bearers of the Sword" initially fought for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

Janjalani however was killed in a gun battle with police in 1998, and the rebels have since morphed into a criminal organization specializing in bombings and kidnappings targeting foreign missionaries and businessmen.

The group is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organizations and is also blamed for the deaths of two American hostages snatched from an island getaway in 2001.

The kidnapping of the 3 factory workers came just a day after a school principal kidnapped by the group in nearby Jolo island in Sulu province was also beheaded.

In that same week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country to re-affirm defense and diplomatic ties with the Philippines.

Clinton's visit threw the spotlight on joint efforts by the allies to crush the Abu Sayyaf, a rag-tag group of about 300-400 gunmen fighting out of the jungles of Basilan and Jolo.

American Special Forces have been rotating in small numbers in the south since 2001 to train and equip their Filipino counterparts.

While they are not allowed to join combat operations, they have provided vital intelligence that has led to the capture or deaths of top Abu Sayyaf leaders in the past eight years.

But the group remains well entrenched in the jungles, and has managed to replenish its ranks by promising monetary rewards to impoverished Muslim youths, analysts say.

Abu Sayyaf attacks have left at least 48 Filipino soldiers and 70 insurgents dead since January. In September, two US soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the deadliest attack on American forces so far by the militant group. With reports from Leila Vicente, ABS-CBN News Zamboanga and Agence France Presse