JOLO ISLAND (Mindanao Examiner / 18 Oct) - The Philippine military on Thursday said it would not negotiate or pay ransom in exchange for the safe release of four people, one of them a US aid worker, kidnapped in the southern island of Jolo, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf militants, blamed by authorities for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings in the restive region.
"We are firm in the government's no ransom policy and we don't negotiate with kidnappers," Army Captain Noel Abello, the acting spokesman of the military's Western Mindanao Command headquarters in Zamboanga City, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Colonel Reynaldo Sealana, commander of an army brigade on Jolo island, said the four were seized Tuesday by their own bodyguards in Parang town after inspecting a Washington-funded road project near Biid village.
Sealana said engineers Romeo Rivera, a program manager working for the United States Agency for International Development-Growth with Equity in Mindanao (USAID-GEM); and Reynaldo Rubio and Larry Bautista, of the Manila-based Terra Zyme Chemicals; and their driver, Isidro Amaramo were being held on the island, about 950 km south of Manila.
He said the victims were returning to their base in Jolo town when six of their native bodyguards seized them for a still unknown reason.
But the island's governor Benjamin Loong has formed a negotiating team to seek the freedom of the four men.
"They are trying to open up negotiations with the kidnappers. We don't know of any breakthrough as this time as far as the negotiation is concerned," Sealana said in a separate interview.
He said the kidnappers were moving from one hideout to another in the towns of Parang, Indanan and Maimbung to avoid detection by the military.
Leaders of the former rebel group, Moro National Liberation Front, also contacted the military on Thursday to say that they will not provide sanctuary to the kidnappers and have ordered its forces to rescue the four men should they stray in areas where the MNLF is operating, Sealana said.
He said troops are tracking down the kidnappers. "There is no way out of this mess, but for the kidnappers to free all the four hostages without ransom or demands," he said.
Rivera's group was working on a road construction in Parang town, while Rubio and Bautista, who arrived on Tuesday from Manila, were only inspecting the project.
The US Embassy in Manila has condemned the kidnappings. A contingent of US troops is in Jolo and training local soldiers in anti-terrorism warfare.
It was not immediately known whether the bodyguards had links with the Abu Sayyaf or not.
The Abu Sayyaf group is active on the island and has kidnapped many Filipino and foreigners in the past in exchange for money.
Some of their victims who failed to pay ransom were beheaded. (Mindanao Examiner)
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