"We are really exerting the utmost precaution to prevent somebody from being killed again as we go through the rescue operations," Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said.
Last month, Chinese engineers Zhang Zhong Quiang and Xue Xing were killed in an encounter between government troopers and the kidnappers in a remote village in Maguindanao. Another Chinese engineer, Ang Shengli, escaped unhurt during the firefight.
The remaining captives, Zhang Zhong Yi and Edwin Lim, are believed being held by the so-called "Pentagon" kidnapping group which reportedly has 70 members.
The Chinese engineers were employees of the China Electric Power Technology Import and Export Corp., the contractor of the long-stalled Malitubog-Maridagao irrigation dam project in Carmen, North Cotabato.
Villanueva said the military’s utmost concern is the safe recovery of the remaining hostages believed being kept in the mountains straddling the towns of Datu Paglas, Tulunan and Buluan in Maguindanao.
He added though that the military "will also keep pushing the kidnappers for them not to take the Armed Forces lightly."