Philippines in new crisis after fresh
cross-border kidnapping
JOLO, Philippines, Sept 12
(AFP) - Philippine officials went into crisis mode Tuesday after Muslim extremist gunmen
snatched three Malaysians from a resort across the border dashing hopes of a quick end to
the 20-week hostage crisis.
President Joseph Estrada, now
visiting Honolulu, hammered home the gravity of the situation by ordering the defense,
military and police chiefs to return to Manila immediately to deal with the latest
installment in the hostage crisis.
Five Abu Sayyaf gunmen grabbed
three Malaysians from Pandanan island off Malaysia's Sabah state on Sunday and had taken
them by boat to Jolo island in the southern Philippines to join 19 other hostages,
provincial police chief Candido Casimiro said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Orlando
Mercado and military chief General Angelo Reyes are in Hawaii to confer with the US
Pacific military Command on bilateral and regional security matters while national police
chief Panfilo Lacson is with the presidential party.
They would arrive in Manila on
Wednesday for an emergency meeting "to discuss the comprehensive solution to the
issue," Vice President Gloria Arroyo told reporters.
"The president is
saddened" by the new development in Jolo, "and of course there are others who
are counselling him to take a different approach from hereon," presidential spokesman
Ricardo Puno said.
Jolo residents saw dive resort
manager Mohamed Noor Sulaiman, 43, dive master Joseph Ongkinoh, 40, and contractor Kan Wei
Chong, 35, in the custody of a certain Commander Eping Ahga, a cousin of Abu Sayyaf leader
Mujib Susukan, in the Jolo village of Mabahay, Casimiro said.
The latest kidnapping came only
hours after the guerrillas on Saturday released four European hostages seized in a raid in
April on the Malaysian island of Sipadan, which lies a 35-minute boat ride from Pandanan.
A Filipino dive instructor is the last remaining hostage from the Sipadan raid.
The gunmen also hold an
American tourist, two French journalists and 12 Filipino Christian preachers, all of who
had consciously walked into the Abu Sayyaf trap.
Police said the Abu Sayyaf have
also kidnapped three young women to become captive brides, though the gunmen have not
publicly acknowledged that they have the women in their custody.
President Estrada's chief aide
Ronaldo Zamora, said the government would discuss a new policy in dealing with the
kidnappings in order "to stop this once and for all."
He did not elaborate, but
stressed that public support was important "for whatever firm action" Manila may
decide later on.
Armed forces vice chief of
staff Lieutenant General Jose Calimlim, describing the Jolo developments as
"exasperating," ruled out a rescue attempt for now.
"If we are given the
order, we can carry it out," he said, but "while the negotiations are ongoing,
we cannot move or do something about it."
Manila is staying its hands for
now as it concentrates its efforts on winning the release of French television journalists
Jean-Jacques Le Garrec and Roland Madura.
"It will happen very soon.
We have a target schedule but we cannot say when, for the safety of the hostages,"
chief government negotiator Roberto Aventajado said.
The other western hostages have
won their freedom with the help of Libya, which offered 10 million dollars in
"development aid" to Muslim areas of the southern Philippines -- plus reportedly
millions of dollars in a cash ransom on the side.
Libyan mediator Rajab Azzarouq
said at the weekend that the Frenchmen could be free by Wednesday or Thursday.
Presidential spokesman Puno
gave a broad hint at Manila's future direction.
Admitting that Estrada had
drawn flak for prolonging the crisis by withholding military action at the outset, he
said: "In my view, one of these days we may test that theory."
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