12 Filipino Evangelists Rescued
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
JOLO, Philippines (AP) - Twelve
Filipino Christian evangelists held hostage for three months by Muslim rebels in the
southern Philippines have been rescued, President Joseph Estrada said Monday.
The rescue followed the escape
earlier in the day of one of the evangelists.
``That is our good news for
today,'' Estrada told a radio station.
He said the Abu Sayyaf rebels
holding the evangelists had all escaped. ``But our soldiers are pursuing them,'' he said.
``I think eventually we will be able to get them.''
The rebels are still holding an
American and three Malaysians.
The 12 evangelists from the
Jesus Miracle Crusade were abducted July 1 when they visited a rebel camp to pray for an
earlier group of hostages.
Earlier Monday, troops
recovered the evangelist who was able to escape, officials said. Fernando Solon, a
Filipino, was the third hostage to escape from the Abu Sayyaf rebels since thousands of
troops attacked the guerrillas Sept. 16 on southern Jolo island.
``He was able to escape from
his captors and was picked up by soldiers,'' military spokesman Maj. Alberto Gepilano
said.
Two French journalists earlier
held hostage escaped Sept. 19 while their captors were fleeing from the military.
A senior army official said the
group of evangelists was rescued at mid afternoon after a brief firefight with the rebels.
The military was able to
pinpoint their location after the first evangelist escaped, he said.
The overall military rescue
assault has taken much longer than the military had predicted, and military Chief of Staff
Angelo Reyes admitted Monday that he had underestimated the rebels' strength.
But Estrada expressed
confidence that all the hostages would be rescued soon. ``I think in one more week we will
end this problem,'' he said.
Reyes said 117 rebels are
believed to have been killed so far in the assault, while four government troops have
died.
More than 88,000 villagers have
fled their homes to escape the fighting, military officials said.
Military leaders have admitted
they made a number of mistakes in the assault, originally predicted to take as little as
three days. The military expected the Abu Sayyaf would fight back instead of fleeing into
the jungle, and did not foresee the amount of popular support it enjoyed on the
predominantly Muslim island, they said.
The military estimates the Abu
Sayyaf had about 4,000 armed men when the assault began - up from only 300 when the rebels
began a kidnapping spree in March which netted scores of hostages.
Many recruits joined the rebels
to share in more than $15 million in ransom paid by Libya and Malaysia, the military says.
Unconfirmed reports say many
civilians have been killed or injured. Independent verification has been impossible
because many areas of Jolo have been shut off to journalists.
Most of the hostages, including
the evangelists and Jeffrey Schilling of Oakland, Calif., were seized when they
voluntarily visited the rebels' camps. The three Malaysians and another Filipino were
kidnapped from Malaysian diving resorts.
Schilling, 24, a Muslim
convert, was accompanied to the Abu Sayyaf camp by his Filipino wife, Ivi Osani, who is
the second cousin of the rebels' spokesman and the widow of a guerrilla killed several
years ago by government troops.
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