Gang holding Chinese willing to negotiate

Kidnappers holding a Chinese and a Filipino hostage in Sultan Kudarat said yesterday they were prepared to negotiate for their freedom if the military ceased its offensive.

As this developed, Vice President Teofisto Guingona ordered an inquiry into the deaths of two Chinese hostages in a bloody military rescue attempt in Colombio town last Sunday.

Two other Chinese captives were killed and a third escaped during a battle Sunday between the military and the kidnappers, believed to be led by Tahir Alonto, a renegade member of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"We will negotiate with the families of our hostages if the military will cease operations," Abu Hamsa, a spokesman for the kidnap gang, told dxMS radio station in Cotabato City.

He said they would issue video footage of the two hostages in their custody to prove they were with them and in good shape.

Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva on Monday ordered stepped up operations to crush the kidnap gang after the two Chinese hostages were killed in the shootout in Sultan Kudarat province.

The victims, identified as Xue Xin and Zhang Zhong-qiang, were employees of a Chinese-led, Japanese-funded irrigation project in the area.

The rescued hostage, Wang Sheng-li, who suffered superficial gunshot wounds, is undergoing a debriefing with the Philippine military.

Hamsa said their demand for P500 million for the release of the hostages had not changed despite the death of the two Chinese captives.

He said they were killed in a crossfire and disputed the military’s contention that they were shot by the kidnappers while escaping during the clash.

Guingona, the concurrent foreign affairs secretary, said yesterday the government should explain to China the circumstances behind the death of two of four Chinese abducted by the gunmen.

"I have asked Defense Secretary (Angelo) Reyes to please conduct a thorough and objective investigation on this incident," he told reporters a day after meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Manila.

China expressed deep concern Monday over the death of its citizens and demanded an explanation from the Philippine government.

The Department of National Defense would seek to establish whether the two hostages were killed by friendly fire or were murdered by their captors, Guingona said.

He told Chinese ambassador Wang Chungui that the hostage rescue effort had been complicated by the unauthorized ransom talks even though both governments had sworn to reject the ransom demands, he told reporters.

However, he said the ambassador told him that the embassy was unaware of the plan to pay ransom.

Wang told Manila that the kidnappers had allowed Zhang to use a mobile telephone to contact his family, apparently launching ransom talks, Guingona said.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, chief of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said Army brigades killed eight kidnappers in clashes but the toll could be as high as 20.

"They recovered eight bodies but the report from assets and the rescued Chinese hostage indicates 20 or more have been killed since Sunday," Camiling said.

Troops also recovered a shoulder-fired rocket propelled grenade and four rifles. – Delon Porcalla, Roel Pareño, Edith Regalado