Deputy inspector-general of police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said the police did their best to rescue the four Malaysians who were kidnapped in the southern Philippines recently.

He said when the victims were kidnapped on April 1, the police’s main priority was to reunite them with their families.

“The most important thing is, they have been rescued and reunited with their families,” he told reporters at a breaking of fast reception in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Teck Chii, 29, their cousin, Johnny Lau, 21, and the fourth man, Wong Hung Sing, 34, were the crew on a tugboat returning to Sarawak from the Philippines on April 1 when they were waylaid and kidnapped by several gunmen near Pulau Ligitan, Sabah.

The four were released on June 8.

Noor Rashid said the focus now was to ensure such incidents did not recur as security in the Eastern Sabah Security Command area, among others, had been strengthened.

- Bernama