Villanueva told reporters the government’s policy is not to pay ransom for Chinese Zhang Zhung-yi and Filipino Edwin Lim who are being held captive by renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on the border of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces.
"We should not be negotiating with the kidnappers," he said. "We cannot again place whole communities and the country hostage to the whims and desires of kidnappers."
However, Abu Musa, leader of the kidnap gang, told radio station dxMS last Tuesday they will "negotiate with the families of our hostages" if the military stops the offensive.
Musa warned Villanueva his men would "kill, behead or execute the remaining hostages" unless the military halted operations in the area where they are encamped.
Two other Chinese hostages were killed, while a third escaped during a gunbattle between government troops and the kidnappers last Sunday.
In North Cotabato, Gov. Emmanuel Piñol, chairman of the crisis management committee negotiating for the release of the two remaining hostages, offered anew yesterday a P300,000 reward for any information that would lead to the rescue of Zhang and Lim.
"The two captives were reportedly seen yesterday being dragged by their captors toward Mt. Alip, a strategic hill at the boundary of Columbio and Buluan towns in Maguindanao," he said.
At Camp Siongco in Maguindanao, Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Army troops killed three kidnappers in clashes the other day.
"For now a total of eight kidnappers, based on actual body count, have been killed in sporadic clashes since last Sunday," he said.
However, Ando said pursuing soldiers still don’t know the whereabouts of Zhang and Lim.
Ando said troops recovered firearms which the kidnappers had abandoned as they fled from the scene of the firefight, carrying at least six wounded comrades.
In Zamboanga City, Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, Southern Command chief, said more than 20 kidnappers were killed in fighting with government troops on Sunday and Monday.
Camiling said soldiers had recovered the bodies of eight kidnappers from the scene of fighting but the gunmen actually suffered heavier losses.
"The report from the assets (civilian informants) and from the rescued Chinese is 20 or more have been killed," he said.
Zhang Zhung Quiang, a Chinese engineer, who was killed when troops tried to rescue the victims last week, was kidnapped in June while working on an irrigation project in Maguindanao.
Three other Chinese, including his brother, Zhang Zhung Yi, and Lim were themselves abducted more than a week ago when they went to the kidnappers’ lair carrying a ransom of P5 million for his release. – John Unson