Military Halts Rescue Operations For Kidnapped Aid Workers In South RP

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.

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)

Groups Condemn Kidnapping Of Aid Workers In Southern Philippines

STATEMENT OF THE INTER-RELIGIOUS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT FOR PEACE (IRSMP) CONDEMNING THE KIDNAPPING OF HUMANITARIAN WORKERS AND DEMANDING FOR THEIR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

AS wE issue this statement, unidentified persons are holding hostage two humanitarian workers presumably somewhere in Basilan Province. The kidnap victims, Nagdilaab Foundation, Inc. (NFI) Program Officer Esperancita Hupida and Manila-based freelance community development specialist Millet Mendoza, were abducted on Monday, September 15 in Cabangalan Barangay, Tipo-Tipo Municipality, Basilan.

We, the members of the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace (IRMSP) based in Zamboanga City, condemn this unwarranted and violent abduction of the defenseless and innocent women. The fact that they were forcibly taken while doing their personal vocation and official duties and mission to help underprivileged and neglected residents of Tipo-Tipo Municipality, as they have been doing for others in the other towns of Basilan for the past many years, makes their abduction a very regrettable act of disservice not only to them and their organizations but more so to the poor residents of Basilan that they serve.

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.

We urge, nay demand, any and all authorities in Basilan to take all measures to effect the safe and speedy freedom of Mesdames Hupida and Mendoza. By your office you have a sacred duty to enforce the rule of law and ensure the security of the law-abiding and peace-loving constituents of Basilan.

The present Holy Month of Ramadan is a time when the believers of Islam are called upon to exert and practice special effort to achieve personal spiritual purity and generosity towards others. By this sacred, religious spirit and model of personal and social conduct demanded by the Most Merciful and Compassionate Allah specially during the Holy Month of Ramadan, we implore and ask the kidnappers to immediately release Mesdames Hupida and Mendoza.

We appeal to all God-fearing and peace-loving people to pray for Mesdames Hupida and Mendoza, and for their kidnappers, too. May God bless us all.

Zamboanga City, September 17, 2008.

REV. FR. ANGEL C. CALVO, CMF
R. Catholic Convenor, IRSMP

PROF. ALI T. YACUB, Al-Haj.
Muslim Convenor, IRSMP

REV. PASTOR RONALD BILANG
Evangelical Convenor, IRSMP

Four Aid Workers Kidnapped In Southern Philippines

BASILAN, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 15, 2008) – Four aid workers have been kidnapped Monday in the island of Basilan, a known stronghold of Moro rebels in the southern Philippines, police said.

Police identified the victims as Esperancita Hupida, Millet Mendoza, Ludy Borja Dekit and Dionisio Estandarte. Two others – Romeo Delos Reyes and Sahida Alasa – managed to escape from their captors.

They were in two vehicles when ten gunmen intercepted them before noontime near the Kabangalan village in Tipo-Tipo town, where Abu Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels are actively operating, said Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, the island’s police chief.

“Police and military forces are tracking down the hostages. We still do not know who were behind the latest kidnappings,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

The victims were members of the Christian Children’s Fund and the Nagdilaab Foundation, which are both active in various humanitarian projects in Basilan, just several miles off Zamboanga City.

Police said one of the hostages, Esperancita Hupida, is the program director of the Nagdilaab Foundation.

Father Angel Calvo, a Catholic missionary and head of the Peace Advocate Zamboanga, appealed to kidnappers to free the hostages. He said the kidnappers are holding a fifth hostage, who was helping coordinate humanitarian projects in Basilan.

Calvo said the hostages are community development workers who have been serving the Muslim communities 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 the vehicles.

The Nagdilaab Foundation was last month conferred the Ateneo Peace Award in Zamboanga City because of its dedicated leadership and unwavering involvement in the “Pantabangan Basulta,” a consortium of ten non-government organizations that engage and support local leaders and multisectoral constituents in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to develop sustainable interventions to promote peace and development in partnership with communities and stake-holders.

NFI 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.

Suspected 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 Puruji Indama and Nur Hassan Jamiri, both known leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group. (Mindanao Examiner)