No ransom for kidnapped Red Cross workers in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 30, 2009) – Sulu Governor Sakur Tan on Friday reiterated Manila’s strict no-ransom policy and said any payment of money for the release of three kidnapped Red Cross workers would be used by the Abu Sayyaf to purchase more weapons.

The Abu Sayyaf, tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya terror groups, is holding hostage Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba since January 15.

“We will not pay ransom to the kidnappers. Any ransom paid to the kidnappers will only be used to buy new weapons and that will be a big problem for us,” the governor, who heads the crisis committee in-charge of negotiating with the kidnappers, said in an interview with radio network dzRH.

The three were kidnapped after inspecting a water and sanitation project at a prison facility in Patikul town. Police said a dismissed jail guard was among five gunmen who kidnapped the trio and handed them over to Abu Sayyaf leaders Albader Parad and Abu Pula.

On Wednesday, the kidnappers allowed Sulu deputy governor Nur Anna Sahidulla, who is the local Red Cross head, to see and talk to the hostages on a hinterland village in Indanan town.

The hostages said they are being treated fairly and were allowed by their captors to use their laptop and cell phones.

Photographs of the meeting were also released to the media. They were taken from a mobile phone and showed Notter, Vagni and Lacaba posing with Sahidulla.

The kidnappers said all they wanted are livelihood and development projects, but other sources said the Abu Sayyaf is also asking for government amnesty.

The U.S. offered millions of dollars in bounties for known Abu Sayyaf leaders and the Philippine government also put aside P100 million as rewards for the capture - dead or alive – any of the group’s commanders.

Since 1997, the Abu Sayyaf has been designated by the State Department as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Both Pula and Parad, who were former members of the Moro National Liberation Front, are included in the Philippines’ most wanted terrorists.

They have been accused by authorities of involvement in bomb attacks and kidnappings for ransom, including the abduction of 21 people, mostly European tourists, from a Malaysian resort in 2000, including U.S. tourist Jeffrey Craig Schilling in Sulu.

Schilling was held hostage for more than seven months by the Abu Sayyaf and during his captivity, some of the demands made by the Abu Sayyaf were the release of international terrorist Ramsey Yousef and the blind Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman from U.S. prison, the withdrawal of American forces from the Middle East and the payment of $10 million in ransom. (Mindanao Examiner)

Arroyo Visits Wake Of Tiya Dely

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 7, 2008) - President Gloria Arroyo visited the wake of Philippine broadcaster icon Fidela "Tiya Dely" Magpayo at the Loyola Memorial Chapel in Marikina City.

Arroyo stayed for 30 minutes during Saturday's visit and spoke with Magpayo's daughters and other family members.

Tiya Dely, 87, was at her radio booth at dzRH when she suffered a stroke last week and died later at a hospital. She had maintained a full schedule at the radio station, hosting a nightly show, “Ang Inyong Tiya Dely,” apart from the weekend program.

Her career in the broadcast media started when she was about 18. She joined the group of radio comedians Andoy Balunbalunan and Dely Atay-atayan as a singer.
Tiya Dely got her first counseling program at dzRH in October 1953. She later transferred to dzMM, and was the last radio host heard on air before the Lopez-owned station was padlocked by the Marcos regime. She later resumed her career on radio at dzRH.

Aside from being a radio personality, Tiya Dely also acted in movies produced by Sampaguita Pictures, LVN and Larry Santiago Productions. Among her films were "Basahang Ginto" and "Hinihintay Kita."

She was also a singer, recording songs like "Pamaypay ng Maynila," "Sa Ilalim ng Ilang-Ilang," "Pandanggo ni Neneng" and "Nabasag ang Banga."

After World War II, she supported the presidential campaign of the late President Manuel Roxas. When he won, Roxas appointed Tiya Dely as confidential secretary of then Vice President Elpidio Quirino.

She took up foreign service at the Far Eastern University but later shifted to political science. She graduated in 1950. Tiya Dely was married to the late Colonel Leonor Reyes, who fought in Bataan and Korea. They had two daughters, Violeta and Delia, and a son, Leonor Jr.

Among the awards she received for her contributions to the Philippine broadcast industry are the Pama-As Gintong Bai award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Gawad Plaridel from the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas. She was about to receive an award from the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino when she suffered a stroke.

Sayyafs Demand P50 Million For Kidnapped TV News Crew In South RP

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 12, 2008) – Abu Sayyaf militants have reportedly demanded as much as P50 million for the safe release of a kidnapped television news crew in the southern Philippine island of Sulu.

Militants are holding award-winning ABS-CBN reporter Ces Drilon and her two cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, including a university professor Octavio Dinampo.

Philippine television giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation said it would not pay ransom to kidnappers, who originally demanded P10 million ransoms. Radio network dzRH in Manila on Thursday said the militants were demanding P50 million from the victims' families negotiating directly with the Abu Sayyaf.

It said the hostages should have been freed on Wednesday after unnamed negotiators agreed to pay the ransom money, but the Abu Sayyaf did not release Drilon's group after the ABS-CBN issued a statement saying it will not pay ransom to the terrorist group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya.

The radio network, owned by the Manila Broadcasting Corporation, which quoted unnamed sources privy to the negotiations, also reported that the kidnappers have already lowered their demands to P25 million. The reports could not be independently confirmed and police in Sulu said Dinampo had been separated from the group of Drilon.

"We have intelligence reports saying Dinampo had been separated from the other captives for a still unknown reason," Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the provincial police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.

The fate of Dinampo remains unknown. But Kasim said the hostages are being held by Abu Sayyaf leaders Albader Parad and Umbra Jumdail, also known as Dr. Abu, in Sulu's hinterlands.

Police also tagged Gafur Jumdail as among those who kidnapped the four people on June 8 near the village of Kulasi in Maimbung town while on their way to interview a senior Abu Sayyaf terror leader, Radulan Sahiron, who is said to be planning to surrender.

Kasim also denied news reports the Jemaah Islamiya is holding the hostages. "We have no reports about JI's involvement in the kidnappings. As far as we know, it the group of Parad and Jumdail," he said.

"ABS CBN News journalists Ces Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion, and Angelo Valderama have been kidnapped for ransom. ABS CBN News is doing everything it can to help the families of its kidnapped journalists through this harrowing ordeal," the television network said in a statement released on Wednesday.

"However, ABS CBN News will abide by its policy not to pay ransom because this would embolden kidnap for ransom groups to abduct other journalists, putting more lives at risk," it added.

Police said the hostages are still alive, but it was unclear where the Abu Sayyaf is hiding the victims. The kidnappers have picked an emissary, Isnaji Alvarez, the mayor of Indanan town in Sulu, to negotiate for the release of the hostages, the ABS-CBN reported.

Alvarez, a former Moro National Liberation Front rebel leader, is also one of seven candidates running for the regional governor in the Muslim autonomous region elections in August.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, chief of the regional police force, said there are efforts to negotiate with the kidnappers for the release of the hostages. "There are options here and one is to locate the hostages and negotiate for their safe release," he said.

Goltiao said the government has a strict no-ransom policy. He said the police are closely coordinating with Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, the head of the local Crisis Management Committee, in resolving the problem peacefully.

Parad and Jumdail are notorious Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by Washington and Manila for terrorism and kidnappings-for-ransom. The two are also believed coddling Jemaah Islamiya bomber Dulmatin and Umar Patek, tagged as behind the 2002 deadly bombings in Bali which killed more than 200 mostly tourists; and in several attacks in Jakarta.

The Abu Sayyaf group was also tagged as behind the kidnapping early this year of Maria Rosalie Lao, 58, a rice trader in Jolo town. It was also behind the kidnappings in 2001 of 21 people, mostly Asian and European tourists from the Malaysian island-resort of Sipadan.

Last year, the group kidnapped seven people in Sulu and beheaded them after their families failed to pay up ransom.

The US has offered up to $5 million bounty and Manila as much as P10 million rewards for known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Jumdail, for their capture – dead or alive.

The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, also offered to help secure the release of Drilon's team which arrived in Sulu on June 7 from Zamboanga City. Police said Drilon did not coordinate with them when they arrived in Sulu. She also declined military escorts.

Drilon's group was lodged at the Sulu State College hostel in Jolo town where they took two rooms and left after ordering foods good for 20 people.

Her group was the second from the television network to be kidnapped in Sulu in the past eight years. Reporter Maan Macapagal and her cameraman Val Cuenca were also kidnapped on the island while working on exclusive news on the Abu Sayyaf.

Independent journalist Arlyn dela Cruz was also kidnapped in Sulu while covering the Abu Sayyaf. Another photojournalist Gene Boyd Lumawag was shot in the head by an Abu Sayyaf militant while shooting the sunset in Sulu several years ago.

The Abu Sayyaf had also seized foreign journalists covering the Sipadan kidnapping crisis. Many of those kidnapped were freed after paying huge ransom.

(Mindanao Examiner)