2 more Agusan hostages freed

PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur , Philippines  – Manobo tribesmen freed two more hostages yesterday but continued to hold 46 others in a forested hideout in the mountains, negotiators said.

Police have surrounded the area where the hostages are being held in Agusan del Sur, but said they were giving negotiations a chance.

“We are optimistic that we can resolve this through negotiation,” said Senior Superintendent Nestor Fajura, operations chief of the regional police office.

“There is no threat to the lives of the hostages, they were fed and they freed one sick hostage," he told local radio. "Our channels of communications are open."

Besides the sick hostage, one other man was freed since he needed to attend a funeral, negotiator Josefina Bajade, a provincial social worker, told Reuters.

The government negotiators had earlier requested the group's leader, Ondo Perez, to release hostages who had health problems.

The tribesmen freed forester Arsenio Balansag of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and another hostage identified only as Nestor.

Nestor was released after he told the suspects that he was going home to Tandag, Surigao del Sur after receiving a report that his brother died.

There were reports that Nestor promised Perez he would return after attending the funeral of his brother.

Bajade said media would no longer be allowed to enter the kidnappers' lair. Perez reportedly said yesterday's exposure with the media was already enough.

She also claimed that the Agusan del Sur provincial government had now assigned its former public information officer, Ferdinand Perez, to be the official spokesman of the negotiating team.

"I am not allowed to speak to the media anymore," Bajade said.

Bajade, however, said all 46 remaining hostages, 45 male adults and one female, are in safe condition and the provincial government is supplying the hostages and hostage-takers with food and other basic supplies.

Armed Manobo tribesmen, including former members of the Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU), holding dozens of people captive in a Philippine jungle were given a firm warning by the government on Saturday as the crisis entered a third day, officials said.

The tribesmen led by Perez kidnapped last Thursday morning about 75 people, including school children and teachers, in Sitio Maitum, Barangay San Martin.

The suspects who were armed with M-14 and M-16 rifles and indigenous weapons seized four teachers, students and civilians at the New Maasim Elementary School right after the flag ceremony as they were about to start their morning classes.

Police said the Manobo warriors claimed the government has delayed justice for the alleged murder of their tribal chief and three Manobo tribesmen by a group led by Joel Tubay. The killings allegedly stemmed from a clan war over access to logging areas.

Sources from the tribesmen said they had repeatedly asked for assistance from the government, particularly from the National Commission on Indigenous People's Commission, but did not receive any response.

The kidnappers demanded that the police arrest Tubay and disarm his clan and drop the charges against them.

"I outlined to them a certain scenario that would happen if they refused to release the remaining hostages," Bajade told AFP.

She would not discuss what this scenario would be.

Government negotiators hope the tribesmen would release the remaining hostages soon after authorities agreed to discuss many of their demands.

Alfredo Plaza, spokesman for the negotiators, said the military and police have started reviewing the demands of the gunmen, which boosted optimism that the crisis might end soon.

About 400 soldiers and police have deployed in the area amid concern that the kidnappers would harm the hostages, who have been forced to sleep on the ground due to the primitive conditions there, according to government officials who visited them.

"The hostages are all okay," she said. "We saw to it that food and water were brought to them and they are unharmed. Negotiations are still going on."

"I will kill the hostages if police attempt to rescue them," Perez told an AFP reporter who accompanied a negotiator to the remote mountain site.

Mindanao is full of bandits, communist guerrillas and Islamic rebels. Powerful local families maintain large private armies and feuding among them is common.

Last month, 57 people, including 30 journalists, were killed after they were stopped at a checkpoint in Maguindanao while on their way to file a candidate's nomination for elections next year.

The killings led to the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao last week.

Bajade said the hostage-takers had demanded that murder cases against them be dropped. They have also asked police to disarm rivals from the same tribe, with whom they are feuding.

Clan wars, known locally as "rido," are common in Mindanao.

Studies funded by the Asia Foundation and the US Agency for International Development in 2007 found there had been more than 1,200 clan feuds in the south since the 1930s, killing nearly 5,000 people and displacing tens of thousands.