ZAMBOANGA CITY (December  12, 2009)  - Basilan Vice-Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakalahul on Saturday confirmed  that the 19-year-old grandson of a former town mayor of Zamboanga del Norte, kidnapped in  that province three months ago is now in Basilan province.
 
Sakalahul, chair  of  the Basilan Crisis Management Committee (CMC), said he received a letter and photographs showing Donald John Capili being held hostage in one of the forested areas  of Basilan.
 
Suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf Group  kidnapped Capili while tending to the family-owned gasoline station in Barangay Baybay, Liloy town on August 27.
 
Capili is the grandson of Belchu Uy former mayor of Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte.
 
Sakalahul  declined to  reveal how the letter and Capili's photographs were sent to him by  Capili’s captors. Sakalahul said he would discuss the letter's content in a meeting of the next CMC conference.
 
With Capili transferred to Basilan province, the number of kidnapping hostages being held captives in the province have increased to three.
 
The two other  hostages are Zi Shun Lu alias Oscar Lu, 51, and Bo Shung Tan alias Michael Tan, 27, both Chinese nationals from Guanzhou Province, mainland China.
 
They were seized by at least 30 gunmen on November 10 from a plywood factory in barangay Maluso town, Basilan.