RP boosts military build-up on RP hostage island
RP boosts military build-up on RP hostage island
JOLO, Philippines (Agencies): President Joseph Estrada on Friday boosted the military presence on the remote southern Philippine island of Jolo where the Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding 22 hostages, despite ruling out an immediate rescue bid.
The Jolo airport became a hive of military activity after one more obstacle appeared to block the expected release on Friday of French journalists Jean-Jacques Le Garrec and Roland Madura.
The two should walk free "perhaps in the next day or two," and government negotiators are en route to Jolo to secure their release, said provincial governor Abdusakur Tan.
But there was no sign of the negotiators on Friday. Instead, a military plane and six helicopters dropped off senior and mid- level officers led by Brig. Gen. Narciso Abaya, the commander of the army's First Infantry Division.
Local officials insisted the visits were unrelated to the hostage crisis.
But the officers' staff said on condition of anonymity that three marine battalions were scheduled to land on the island shortly from nearby Mindanao island, where they have been battling a second guerrilla faction.
Factional fighting prevented Abu Sayyaf, the Muslim separatist group holding the hostages, from freeing the Frenchmen on Friday, sources close to the talks said.
The military said the guerrillas have reaped millions of dollars from the nearly five months-old hostage crisis but are quarreling over the division of spoils.
The hostages also include American Jeffrey Schilling and Malaysians Kan Wei Chong, Joseph Ongkinoh and Mohamed Noor Sulaiman. The rest are Filipinos.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen visited Manila on Friday and held talks with his Filipino counterpart Orlando Mercado.
"We have encouraged President Estrada to continue to seek a diplomatic resolution," Cohen told reporters later, while reiterating Washington's opposition to ransom.
Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin said Malaysian officials "are telling us, 'just do whatever you think should be done,'" the only condition being that the hostages should be recovered "alive, in one piece."
Malaysia
Malaysia, victim of two kidnap raids by Philippine rebels, on Friday ordered its troops to shoot on sight any suspected armed foreign intruders.
"The shoot-on-sight order should serve as a warning that intruders are not welcomed," the official Bernama news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as saying.
"We will shoot those armed people intruding into our territorial waters and out to create undesirable acts," he said.
Abdullah said he hoped the order, which followed his government's Thursday decision to step up security on the islands that form part of Malaysia's Sabah state, would not spark an international outcry.
The Abu Sayyaf rebels are holding three Malaysians hostage on the southern Philippine island of Jolo after raiding a tourist resort on Sabah's Pandanan island on Sunday.
In April, the rebels seized 21 mostly foreign hostages, from a diving resort on nearby Sipadan island.
Abdullah said soldiers must "act promptly in intercepting such intruders to avoid undesirable consequences".
"If we don't shoot criminals and intruders armed with M-16s, do you expect us to welcome them?" he said. The bold decision came after opposition leaders and local newspapers accused the government of lax security.
Abdullah said he had briefed Defense Minister Najib Razak and the Federal police chief Norian Mai on the decision.
Asked why Malaysia had not issued such an order after the Sipadan kidnapping, Abdullah said: "If we resort to that right from the beginning, some will say we are over-reacting."
Najib said on Thursday that the government viewed the kidnaps as intrusions into Malaysia's sovereign territory. Soldiers would be deployed in all islands that form part of Sabah, he said, but did not say how they would be deployed.
Estrada has been under intense pressure to authorize military action against the Abu Sayyaf. He cut short a US trip on Wednesday to return to Manila to deal with the crisis after the gunmen seized new hostages from the Malaysian resort of Pandanan.
Meanwhile, Philippine immigration posts have been put on alert to thwart any attempt by Abu Sayyaf members to flee the country, immigration commissioner Rufus Rodriguez said.