A distraught father has pleaded with the Abu Sayyaf that he wants to hear his child's voice just once. "Then I'll know that she is alive. I want to hear her voice," Benito Chua told Radyo Agung as he pleaded with rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya to have mercy on Lalaine, 15.

"Pur her on air. I hope that she can talk to me in Chinese. I am appealing to Abu Sabaya to lower the ransom demand of $100,000 (P 5 million) to $30,000 (P 1.5 million)," said Chua, adding, "We are not rich, unlike the other hostages."

Chua has been making the same appeal for a lower ransom demand for the past two weeks.
Chua asked a personal friend in Manila to continue negotiating with Abu Sabaya. The friend told the Abu Sayyaf leader that the Chua family cannot pay the high ransom demand, sources said.

Earlier, Chua told reporters that he sold his business interest to be able to raise some ransom money for his daughter. Sources said Sabaya refused to listen to Chua because he learnt from one of the Chinese hostages, Letty Jao, that the Chua family could raise as high as $ 200,000 (P 10 million).

"Jao was just worried that the Abu Sayyaf group would not let her go when asked about the financial status of the Chua family," said a source. Jao and Janice Go were released in Lamitan, Basilan on June 2. Jao's daughter Kimberly Uy-Jao was released on June 16.

Sources said Sabaya has different ransom demands for the hostages, depending on their financial status. Earlier, the Presidential Palace criticised Sabaya for being a mercenary because the group beheaded two hostaged hotel staff on June 2. Another hotel staff survived an attempt at beheading on June 2.

"They were killed because they could not raise the ransom demand," presidential spokesperson Rigoberto Tiglao had said about the incident. Only six remain of the 20 hostages who were taken by the rebel group from Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, southwestern Philippines on May 27.