T

he government is stepping up its efforts to glean information regarding the fate of seven Indonesian sailors recently abducted in waters off the southern Philippines.

There had as of Sunday evening been no word from the authorities as to whether the crewmen aboard the tugboat Charles 001 were abducted by terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, though the government did reveal that the hostagetakers had demanded a ransom of an undisclosed sum.

Abu Sayyaf’s known modus operandi is to kidnap sailors and demand ransoms from the respective national governments or the firms that own the boats; the group is especially active around Jolo island, which the Indonesian Navy has confirmed as the location of the kidnapping.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Sunday that the government was mulling a number of means of securing the release of the seven crewmen, with a final decision to made by Tuesday.

“We will probably by Tuesday have the answer on what preliminary measures we will take,” Luhut said.

He added that a crisis center established by the government was working to verify information on the abduction to enable an informed decision to be made.

The latest case is the third abduction of Indonesians in the area in three months, and has prompted the government to issue a moratorium on the shipment of coal to the Phillipines.

The neighboring country is heavily dependent on Indonesian coal, but is increasingly seen as having failed to provide adequate security for foreign vessels in its waters.

The abduction took place following trilateral talks in Manila between the defense ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, which issued a joint statement exploring measures such as coordinated maritime and air patrols in waters of common concern.

Luhut earlier said that the government was looking into the possibility that the latest incident was related to the previous abductions of 14 Indonesian sailors by Abu Sayyaf in two separate incidents in March and May.

The 14 were all released in late May, but the government remained tight-tipped as to whether the companies they were working for had paid the ransoms demanded.

The government denied it had paid any ransom money, claiming that the release was instead the result of “total diplomacy” carried out by the two governments concerned.

Further details of the latest abduction emerged over the weekend.

The Navy’s investigation confirmed that the seven men had been taken in two separate incidents by two groups speaking different languages in waters near Jolo.

The Charles 001 towing the barge Robby 152 had 13 sailors on board. The abductors detained seven of them and allowed the other six to head back to Samarinda, East Kalimantan, from where they had set sail.

Navy spokesman First Admiral Edi Sucipto said that the Navy had questioned the six survivors, learning that five Malay-speaking, heavily armed kidnappers had abducted three crewmembers — Captain Fery Arifin, Muhammad Mahbrur and Edy Suryono — in the first incident at 11:30 a.m. last Monday.

“The kidnappers seized all the communications tools from the boat,” Edi said.