Two Malaysian seaweed farmers seized on Borneo in February by gunmen linked to Islamist militants have been freed unharmed across the sea in the southern Philippines, Filipino officials said Wednesday.

Police found Chen Yui Chung, 48 and Lai Wong Chun, 46, in Bongao, the capital of the Tawi-Tawi island group near Malaysian Borneo late Tuesday, national police chief Raul Bacalzo told reporters in Manila.