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Talayan is the town next to Datu Odin Sinsuat.
But the Army and local authorities have kept mum on reports of ransom payment.
“If there was ransom paid, that we do not know,” an official at the 6th ID said.
Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema confirmed the release.
In a radio interview, Sema identified the leader of the group that kidnapped the Tans as Zaynudin Nashrudin.
The mayor said Nashrudin was arrested in 2007 in Manila for a murder case and was turned over to Cotabato City authorities.
A year later, the suspect was released, reports said.
Sema said he did not know the reason for Nashrudin’s release.
Tan, a Filipino-Chinese, owns Cotabato Fish Trading in Cotabato City.
He, his wife and two daughters were aboard a car and were about to enter their residence when four heavily armed men came, broke the car’s windows with their rifles and dragged him and Jenny out.
Tan's wife tried to fight back but was hit in the head with a pistol.
The kidnappers then fled on board a gray Mazda van to a coastal area. They then set the van on fire and boarded a pump boat. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)