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.