RP military vows to 'fix' rebels, free hostages
RP military vows to 'fix' rebels, free hostages
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Agencies): Philippine troops vowed on Friday to keep up their offensive against a rebel group which threatened and then called off the beheading of an American hostage.
The Abu Sayyaf said on Thursday it had dropped its plan to kill Jeffrey Schilling, 25, to allow for the possibility of negotiations with the government.
A spokesman for the rebel group said in a call to a radio station that the government should also call off its military offensive.
But military spokesman Col. Juvenal Narcise told reporters the task was a "two-pronged action which is to rescue (the hostages) and destroy" the Abu Sayyaf. "The troops will find, fight and fix the Abu Sayyaf," he said.
Gen. Diomedio Villanueva told reporters in southern Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern military command, that there was "no reason" to pull out troops from Jolo. "The Abu Sayyaf should release their captives unconditionally," he said.
Schilling and his captors are believed to be holed up in the interior of Jolo, a remote and rugged island some 150 km south of Zamboanga.
The Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead Schilling by 5 p.m. (4 p.m. Jakarta time) on Thursday and send President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo his head as a birthday present if they were not allowed to hold talks with Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf professes to be fighting for a separate Muslim state in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines, but its main occupation appears to be kidnap for ransom.
Schilling, from Oakland, California, was abducted in August when he went to a rebel camp on Jolo along with his Muslim wife, who is related to one of the Abu Sayyaf leaders.
The rebels also hold a Filipino, Roland Ullah, who was kidnapped almost a year ago from a diving resort in nearby Malaysia.
Another 20 people abducted at that time, including several Western tourists, have been released, mostly in exchange for huge ransoms.
Meanwhile, Communist rebels released their last remaining hostage on Friday, making way for new peace talks with the government aimed at ending 30 years of insurgency.
The New People's Army, fighting a Marxist revolution nationwide, turned over army Maj. Noel Buan to a citizen's group and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Mindoro Oriental province.
Buan limped slightly as he followed guerrillas down a mountainside into a waiting throng of onlookers near the coastal mountain town of Mansalay, some 240 kilometers south of Manila.
Hair grown well past his shoulders from 21 months in captivity, the smiling officer embraced his sobbing wife and 12- year-old daughter. Nearby rebels sang revolutionary songs and clapped in rhythm as Justice Secretary Hernando Perez stood by to greet Buan.
"I probably shouldn't talk anymore because you know the emotions," he told reporters in a brief statement.
"This is long overdue," Buan's wife, Cielo, said shortly before the reunion. "I've always kept the house clean and stored simple foods and drinks in the house for him."
Buan's release is meant to improve the atmosphere for the peace talks between the NPA and the government, scheduled to start April 27 in an unidentified Scandinavian country.
"This is a very, very positive step," National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said as the teams prepared for Buan's handover. "We are on the eve of the start of the peace talks.
This will add to the confidence building measures so the two panels can talk well with each other."
To facilitate the release, the government declared a limited cease-fire and confined special military forces to their barracks in the area. The rebels also declared a cease-fire in Mindoro Oriental and nearby provinces.
Another NPA hostage, police Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin, was hit by a stray bullet in an apparently chance encounter between rebels and government troops last month. He bled to death in the jungle as bad weather prevented his evacuation by helicopter.
The rebels had earlier announced plans to release Buan with Martin, who had been hostage since November 1999.
After preliminary talks early last month, the Marxist umbrella group, the National Democratic Front, and the government peace panel announced they will resume talks in a "mutually acceptable foreign neutral venue." Rebel negotiators wanted the venue close to the Netherlands, where they live in exile.
The rebels pulled out of peace talks under former President Joseph Estrada nearly two years ago after the Senate approved an agreement allowing the resumption of large-scale U.S. military exercises in the Philippines.
Military intelligence officials say the NPA has some 11,000 members that operate in small groups nationwide.