EDITORIAL - Humanitarian assistance

They used to call it "board and lodging" fee. In the past bandits in Mindanao staged kidnappings, then freed their victims in exchange for cash. The payment is, of course, ransom. But because the government has a no-ransom policy, euphemisms had to be coined for the payment. So someone thought of payment for board and lodging, even if it meant a lot of money for what has to be the worst accommodations in the country.

Several hostages were freed, among them Catholic priests and nuns, after paying for their board and lodging. During the first hostage crisis last year involving the Abu Sayyaf, there was also official noise about the government’s no-ransom policy. But the truth quickly became known when Libya cheerfully acknowledged that it gave the money for the release of Western hostages and the freed captives started talking.

Now ransom is called "humanitarian assistance." Again it’s Libya taking the lead role, in an apparent effort to rehabilitate its image as a terrorist state. Hours before President Arroyo was to meet with her Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin in Shanghai last Saturday, it was announced that Chinese hostage Zhang Zhongyi had been freed and turned over late Wednesday night to Libyan Ambassador Salem Adam and Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema. Adam said he had promised "humanitarian assistance" from his government to the kidnappers — members of the so-called Pentagon Gang — if they surrendered and started a cooperative.

While ransom has saved lives, it has also encouraged more kidnappings. This time the crooks are not only having their cake and eating it, too, but are being promised a comfortable retirement. For a kidnapper, life does not get any better than that.