Manila orders intensified manhunt

Manila orders intensified manhunt

MANILA (UPI): President Fidel Ramos has ordered the Philippine Armed Forces to step up its hunt for suspected Muslim bandits who are holding five oil engineers hostage in the southern Philippines.

The employees of the Philippine National Oil Co. are being held in the province of Maguindanao, 925 kilometers (575 miles) south of Manila. Ramos directed the Armed Forces' Southern Command to recover them unharmed.

The five were among a 20-member oil exploration team abducted last Sunday by armed men believed to be members of two Muslim bandit groups.

Government officials have been attempting to contact the kidnappers to negotiate the engineers' release.