GMA rejects ransom for 4 professors

President Arroyo rejected yesterday demands made by the kidnappers of four female university teachers in Mindanao and ordered the military to step up efforts to rescue the captives, who were abducted last Sept. 13.

Mrs. Arroyo’s order came after one of the hostages tearfully asked her to secure their release in a video aired by a local television station Friday.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye told reporters that "the President directed the Armed Forces of the Philippines to exert extra efforts to rescue the victims. The President is concerned about their safety and her instruction is for the AFP to exert all efforts to have them rescued."

Bunye said the kidnappers’ demands for the sacking of Mindanao State University (MSU) president Camar Umpa and a P2 million ransom payment are "not negotiable."

The video aired on the evening news of GMA television showed the victims – Salvacion Mikin, Edita Bontila, Emma Karaan and Luzvillar Castellon – crying as they asked Mrs. Arroyo and members of the Senate to help them.

The teachers were seized off a minibus in Lanao del Sur province as the minibus driver stopped for gas.

While GMA identified the kidnappers as members of the Pentagon gang, Lanao del Sur military commander Col. Ernesto Boac said earlier that the suspects were former security guards of the MSU.

Besides the teachers, the military is still working to rescue three Indonesian seamen and four female Jehovah’s Witness evangelists held by separate kidnap gangs linked to the Abu Sayyaf on Jolo island in the southern province of Sulu.

The President has admitted that the latest rash of kidnappings was a setback to her government’s campaign to crush all kidnap gangs within one year.

Meanwhile, Bunye lashed out at the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) for threatening to assassinate government officials who are perceived as hostile to workers or demonstrators.

"That (assassination) has always been part of their strategy so we just have to be very careful," Bunye told reporters. "I don’t think that’s using democratic processes, to assassinate. I don’t think assassination is a legitimate democratic practice."

NDF chief Luis Jalandoni said Mrs. Arroyo would have the blood of Filipinos on her hands with her declaration of an all-out war against communist insurgents. – With AFP