Police have taken into custody June Penaflor who said he was forced by the Abu Sayyaf to behead soldiers held hostage in Basilan in 1995.

A certain Fred of Basilan admitted in a TV interview that he was one of the two men who was captured on video tape, beheading Abu Sayyaf captives. He said his fellow captive had lost his mind because of the incident. He did not say if this was June Penaflor.

"I'm disturbed because my relatives saw me on TV, that I was the one who beheaded the soldier and that I was (misconstrued as) an Abu Sayyaf bandit. That is not true," he said.

He recounted on November 19, 1994, he and four other men went to Tablon village in Sumisip town to survey a property upon the instructions of a certain Arturo Ortesido.

He, Jesus Bonifacio, Nelson Abellana, Danny Dabat and Jun Davines were setting up their surveying equipment, when a group of armed men kidnapped them and brought them to Abu Sayyaf leader Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani.

"It was a nightmare," he said of his experience. He and his companions were freed in Patikul, Sulu in the first week of March 1995.

"I lost my job as labourer because I fear the military," he said, adding he became more miserable when he saw the video footage of the Abu Sayyaf beheading last Wednesday.

He did not say if all his companions were forced by the Abu Sayyaf leaders to decapitate the soldiers who were seen on TV.

A female relative of a former Abu Sayyaf hostage said all the former hostages had been living in peace before the footage was shown in public.

The emergence of former Abu Sayyaf hostages, saying they were forced to decapitate fellow hostages who were soldiers was unprecedented, said Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu.

"I will leave it to our legal experts to determine whether they are liable or not," Cimatu said. "The court will determine his liability," Col. Alexander Aleo of the 103rd Brigade said.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez earlier said those who came out in the open could be liable. But sources said the government is trying to use them as state witnesses against the Abu Sayyaf leaders and members.

"We should not insist that it was (Fred's) his fault. His guilty feelings are being magnified because of the attention he's getting, especially now that everyone saw what happened," said social welfare undersecretary Lourdes Balanon, adding: "He needs professional help especially after he realised the implications of what he did."

Sources said other former hostages who were forced to behead their fellow hostages might come out in the open.

At the same time, the Abu Sayyaf had in its custody seven boys, aged 15, who were used as "errand boys" to go to the towns of Basilan to get food or medicines. The boys escaped from the bandits last month and are now in Zamboanga City, said Balanon.