Philippine reporters on speed dial. They’d call him and ask
him questions in Tagalog, his native tongue. He would
answer in English because he wanted the world to hear his
voice on CNN. “They should make a movie about me,” he
would tell reporters.
In my eyes, Sabaya was a cold-blooded businessman
with an ego as big as Texas. A real shark. Sabaya knew he
was in the commodities game. In Jeffrey Schilling, he had
an item of value. How much could he get for it? He would
find out, and I intended it to be a surprise he wouldn’t like.
As an FBI agent, I wanted to free the hostage and bring the
criminal to justice.
One crucial aspect of any negotiation is to figure out
how your adversary arrived at his position. Sabaya threw
out the $10 million ransom based on a business calculation.
First, the United States was offering $5 million for
information leading to the arrest of any of the remaining
fugitives from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Sabaya reasoned that if the United States would pay $5
million to get its hands on someone it didn’t like, it would
pay much more for a citizen.
Second, a rival faction of the Abu Sayyaf had just
reportedly been paid $20 million for six Western European
captives. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi had made
the payment as “development aid.” This absurdity had been
compounded by a significant portion of the ransom being
paid in counterfeit bills. It was an opportunity for Gaddafi to
both embarrass Western governments and get money over-
darren dugan
(Darren Dugan)
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