ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 17, 2009) – The Philippine military halted operations to rescue two aid workers being held by the Abu Sayyaf on the island of Basilan to pave way for a peace negotiation for their early release.
Militants are holding Esperancita Hupida and Millet Mendoza after they were kidnapped Monday on a village in Tipo-Tipo town. Five other aid workers from the Christian Children’s Fund had either escaped or freed by the Abu Sayyaf, authorities said.
Militants are holding Esperancita Hupida and Millet Mendoza after they were kidnapped Monday on a village in Tipo-Tipo town. Five other aid workers from the Christian Children’s Fund had either escaped or freed by the Abu Sayyaf, authorities said.
Hupida is the program director of the Nagdilaab Foundation, while Mendoza was a former staff worker at the Office of Presidential Adviser to the Peace Process (OPAPP).
Basilan Deputy Governor Alrasheed Sakalahul, head of the local crisis management committee, and Father Angel Calvo, of the Peace Advocates Zamboanga, are helping to secure the safe release of the hostages. But there have been no reports about the fate of two aid workers.
“We have temporarily stopped the (rescue) operations to give way to peaceful negotiations for the release of the victims,” said Marine commander, Colonel Domingo Valdez.
Different humanitarian and solidarity groups have condemned the kidnappings.
“Mesdames Hupida and Mendoza are compassionate and morally courageous persons who have braved, as we know they continue to brave, the dangers of working in conflicted, violence-prone areas, particularly Basilan.”
“They deserve to be treated with the same compassion and moral decency by those who come into contact with them, but especially those who they serve whether directly and indirectly,” the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace said in statement on Wednesday.
The Christian Children's Fund and the Nagdilaab Foundation are both active in various peace and humanitarian projects in Basilan.
The military tagged the Abu Sayyaf group under Puruji Indama and Nur Hassan Jamiri as behind Monday kidnappings.
Calvo said the hostages are community development workers who have been serving the Muslim areas in Basilan for many years now. He said the victims were on their way back to Isabela City from a meeting with town officials when the gunmen flagged down their vehicles.
The Nagdilaab Foundation spun off the Isabela Foundation, which was organized many years ago by the Roman Catholic prelature of Basilan to provide community and humanitarian help to poor residents in the province.
The CCF, an international child-sponsorship group based in Virginia in the United States, has worked in the Philippines since 1954 and has been assisting more than 453,000 children and their families and contributed more than $7.8 million for community programs in the country.
The Abu Sayyaf also kidnapped nine people in recent months in Basilan and sent letters to Christians living on the island threatening them with harm if they do not embrace Islam. The letters were signed by Indama and Jamiri. (Mindanao Examiner)
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