A TOP military official said that elite forces were deployed to track down Abu Sayyaf bandits and rescue the three hostages abducted in the nearby province of Basilan.

Deployed are elite forces from the Philippines Marines and Philippine Army who were trained to carry out specialize missions, according to Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo, spokesman of the Philippine Navy spokesman.

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Arevalo said the pursuing troops have recovered a fragmentation grenade believed to be of the Abu Sayyaf bandits "in an area where the abductors purportedly halted and rest in transit to the jungle."

The Abu Sayyaf, numbering to around 20 gunmen, seized three people around 12:10 a.m. Tuesday from the Hi-Tech Plywood Factory in Townsite village in the town of Maluso, Basilan.

The victims were identified as Michael Tan, 27, Oscar Lu, 51 and Mark Singson.

Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie, Basilan police director, said Puruji Indama, a mid-level leader of the Abu Sayyafs operating in Basilan, leads the bandit group that seized the victims.

Tulawie said police forces, in coordination with the military forces, are also tracking down the kidnappers.

Tulawie said they already have an idea about the kidnappers' location but declined to divulge it so as not to jeopardize the ongoing operations. (Bong Garcia)