Hostage-takers agree to wait for lawyer

Hostage-takers agree to wait for lawyer

DAVAO (AFP): A group of prisoners who are holding five women hostage in a southern Philippine penal colony have agreed on Saturday to drop their demand for a getaway vehicle and to instead wait for a meeting with a Moslem lawyer.

Dario Mahumot, leader of the hostage-takers said, in an interview aired over local radio station DXDC, that they would not leave the Davao penal colony but would wait for the lawyer dispatched by an insurgent group.

The eight prisoners, seven of whom claim to be members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) took five civilian women prison employees hostage on Thursday using improvised weapons made out of iron bars and kitchen utensils.

The prisoners, most of them serving time for common-law crimes including robbery and murder, have threatened to kill their hostages one by one and have kept police at a standoff for two days, initially demanding a vehicle.

They demanded a helicopter to fly them to an MILF camp but after a dialogue with MILF military commander Mohammad Murad, they agreed to wait instead for a meeting with the lawyer who is versed in Islamic law.

It was not clear what the lawyer was supposed to do in meeting the prisoners.

The hostage-takers had also asked to be transferred to an MILF camp but this was turned down.

Jesus Dureza, an aide of Philippine President Fidel Ramos, who was dispatched to negotiate with the prisoners said "I don't think this request (for a transfer) is possible but nonetheless, I am happy that they are now toning down their position."

Murad said the request for a transfer was also unlikely to be granted adding that they still had to confirm if these prisoners really were members of the MILF.

Dureza had previously met with the MILF to discuss the hostage-taking incident.

The MILF, founded in 1978 and which has an estimated 10,000 guerrillas, is holding peace talks with the government which is attempting to negotiate a political settlement with the last major insurgency in Mindanao, the southern region that is home to the country's Moslem minority.

Officials also said that relatives of the five hostages were able to meet with them in the reception area where they are being held to provide provisions.

The five women reportedly had no reports of mistreatment by the hostage-takers but were afraid the police would rush the place, prompting the hostage-takers to pull the pin on five grenades they had obtained.

Dureza said he had got the Ramos government to act immediately on one of the prisoners' demands -- the replacement of prison superintendent Jose Poblacion and for prison guards to pull back. However, he ruled out giving them a getaway vehicle.

"We have to act fast in critical situations like this," he said earlier, recalling a similar incident in 1989 when a group of prisoners took an Australian missionary hostage, gang-raped and then murdered her.

The hostage-takers then were later shot dead after police launched an assault. "We will not allow this thing to happen again," he added.

Dureza said he "warned them not to harm the hostages," otherwise all prior agreements would be called off.

He said he had been informed that "the night passed without anything major happening."

Prison officials have said the hostage-takers had also made other demands including the building of a mosque in the prison.