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.