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ZAMBOANGA CITY: Executives of the television network
ABS-CBN said they would not pay ransom to Abu Sayyaf militants who
kidnapped their news crew.
The Abu Sayyaf is reportedly
demanding P10 million for the safe release of the hostages that
include award-winning journalist Ces Oreña-Drilon, according to a
military report. Militants are holding Drilon, her cameramen, Jimmy
Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, and university professor Octavio
Dinampo.
The four were intercepted near
the village of Kulasi in Maimbung town on June 8 while on their way
to clandestinely interview senior Abu Sayyaf terror leader Radulan
Sahiron, who is said to be planning to surrender.
“ABS-CBN News journalists Ces
Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama have been kidnapped
for ransom,” the network said in a statement released Wednesday.
“ABS-CBN News is doing everything it can to help the families of
its kidnapped journalists through this harrowing ordeal.”
“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.
Hostages alive
Police said the hostages are
alive, but it was unclear where the Abu Sayyaf is hiding them.
“They are alive. We have sources who told us that all four
hostages are alive,” Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, commander
of police forces in the Muslim autonomous region, told The Manila
Times.
He 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.”
In a report by Agence France-Presse,
Goltiao said there was a “great possibility” that the
journalists would be freed, but would not say who was involved in
the negotiations.
“Negotiations are being
conducted,” Goltiao said in a radio interview.
“There is a great possibility
that we will obtain the release of Ces Drilon . . . but we cannot
give an exact date.”
He told The Times that police are
closely coordinating with Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, the head of the local
crisis management committee, in resolving the problem peacefully.
Suspects named
Police have tagged Gafur Jumdail
and Albader Parad, a young but notorious Abu Sayyaf leader who is
wanted by Washington and Manila for terrorism and killings, as
behind the kidnappings.
Parad’s group was also tagged
as behind the kidnapping early this year of Maria Rosalie Lao, 58, a
rice trader in Jolo town. Parad was among the Abu Sayyaf militants
who seized 21 people, mostly Asian and European tourists in April
2000 from the Malaysian island-resort of Sipadan. Last year, his
group also kidnapped seven people in Sulu and beheaded them after
their families failed to pay ransom.
Parad is also included in the
terror list both of Washington and Manila for involvement in the
spate of terror attacks and kidnappings of foreigners. The US has
offered a $750,000 bounty for Parad’s capture.
The Philippines’ largest Muslim
rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), also offered
to help secure the release of Drilon’s team, which arrived in Sulu
on June 7 from Zamboanga City.
Senior Superintendent Julasirim
Kasim said Drilon did not coordinate with them when they arrived in
Sulu. She also declined military escorts. He said the victims were
believed taken to the hinterlands of Indanan town.
Drilon’s group was lodged at
the Sulu State College hostel in Jolo town where they took two rooms
and left on Saturday afternoon after ordering food good for 20
people.
A hotel staff said he saw Drilon
hurriedly left and had asked her where she was going. “She was
really in a hurry, and I even asked her where they were going and
Ces Drilon only replied that they would just be nearby. They never
came back since Saturday.”
Drilon’s group was the second
from the television network to be kidnapped in Sulu by the Abu
Sayyaf in the past eight years.
The Abu Sayyaf had also seized
foreign journalists covering the group’s kidnapping of 21 Asian
and Western holidaymakers from Sabah. The group also kidnapped in
the past local traders and most of those kidnapped were freed in
exchange for ransom, but many were also raped and killed.
The abduction of Drilon and her
crew has been widely criticized by journalists’ groups here and
abroad.
“We hope that those who
abducted the journalists and their guide will hear the appeals being
made on their behalf by many of the country’s leading figures,”
said the international press group Reporters Without Borders.
--WITH AFP
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