The Abu Sayyaf Group has received an estimated $200,000 (P 10m) from each of the nine freed hostages over the week-end, claimed a source, who said the payoff occurred in Manila.

"Many of the richer tourists paid as much as $400,000 (P20m) for ransom," said a relative of the hostages, adding that the ransom payment was coursed through a bank in nearby Zamboanga port city. He did not give more details.

"The terrorist let my relative speak on the satellite phone and they demanded ten million pesos ransom to be deposited in a bank account in Zamboanga City," the relative said, adding that some of those released were tasked to raise the ransom demand.

Meanwhile, the Abu Sayyaf Group demanded $200,000 for each of the three American hostages and the other Filipino hostages who were brought to the hinterland lairs of Basilan, said the same relative.

Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya made the ransom demand on the phone numbers which he got from the hostages, said the source. At least nine of the 20 abducted tourists, many of them from affluent Filipino families in Manila, were separately freed on Saturday and Sunday in Lamitan town.

Military authorities claimed the hostages escaped from various separate areas when the group brought them to Lamitan, Basilan, last Friday.

Those freed by the Abu Sayyaf on Saturday were business tycoon Reghis Romero ll, two of the four Filipino-Chinese tourists Letty Jao and Janice Go, Tereza Ganzon, wife of former transportation undersecretary Francis Ganzon, and travel editor Raul Recio, his wife Divine and son RJ Recio.

Also released were Maria Riza Santos, from an affluent suburban Quezon City subdivision, and Aldrin Morales, a resort security guard who luckily escaped execution unlike his two companions, Sonny Daquer, a cook, and Armand Bayona, a security guard, whose beheaded bodies were found by authorities in Bulanting jungle village, Lamitan last Sunday.

They were all abducted in Dos Palmas, an upmarket resort in Palawan on May 27. They managed to escape a heavy naval blockade in the Sulu Sea, and landed in Basilan, which is 400km away from the scene of the kidnapping.