Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced in Jakarta that "four Indonesians held hostage by an armed group. have been released".
The foreign affairs chief said the Philippines had a trilateral meeting with foreign ministers of Indonesia and Malaysia to strengthen efforts to combat criminal activities.
Indonesian authorities have insisted that the government did not pay a 50 million peso ($1 million) ransom demanded for the release of the 10 men, who had been seized off the Philippines' Tawi-Tawi island province in late March.
Indonesian officials have denied any ransom was paid for the release of the 10.
They were kidnapped at sea in mid-April by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants, the third in a series of attacks on tugboats that sparked a regional maritime security alarm. Then later on that day the MNLF group took the Indonesians to the house of Sulu governor Abusakur Tan Jr in Jolo in Southern Philippines.
Kota Kinabalu: The threat of execution hangs over the four abducted Malaysian sailors after Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines set an "early" May deadline for talks to begin for their release.
However, intelligence sources on the ground disclosed reports that the hostages were freed at 9 p.m. Tuesday in Barangay Silangkan. "Arrangements are now being finalised for the handover of the Indonesian nationals to the Indonesian authorities", he said in a statement.
Retno also did not confirm whether they were released in exchange for a ransom.
The four sailors - Sarawakians Wong Teck Kang, 31, Wong Hung Sing, 34, Wong Teck Chii, 29, and Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21 - were abducted by Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the waters off Ligitan Island in Sabah on April 1.
Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.
Abu Sayyaf is still holding four Malaysian seamen, as well as Japanese, Dutch, Canadian, Norwegian, and Filipino citizens.
Source: Four Kidnapped Indonesian Sailors Discharged by Abu Sayyaf
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