Two ailing children aged seven and 10 were freed yesterday by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas holding 31 hostages in their jungle hideout in Sumisip town in the island province of Basilan in Mindanao.
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN reported yesterday that the Abu Sayyaf rebels are demanding the release of Arab terrorists jailed in the United States before they free the remaining 29 captives.
It was unclear whether the fundamentalists were demanding the release of Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Philippine police say the Abu Sayyaf has links with Yousef, who hid in Manila before fleeing to Pakistan, where he was arrested in 1995.
This developed as the extremist rebels demanded a ban on the putting up of crosses in Christian churches, chapels and cemeteries in the predominantly Muslim province of Basilan.
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Ahmad said fourth grader Lanny Mae Cachuela and second grader Nova Verallo, both of the Sinangkapan Elementary School in Tuburan town, needed medical attention after they were stricken with influenza.
The children were turned over to a group of mediators led by popular movie actor Robin Padilla, a recent convert to Islam, and were waiting transport from the extremist rebels' forward base near Maluso town.
The youngsters broke into tears upon their arrival at the Claret Formation Center in the capital town of Isabela.
They said their brothers were among those still being held by the Abu Sayyaf in the rebel Camp Abdurajak in the hinterlands of Sumisip.
Padilla was set to return to the capital town of Isabela, but was delayed after a government truck sent to fetch him broke down.
The rebels are still holding 29 hostages, mostly students and their teachers, and a Catholic priest seized from raids on two schools last March 20.
The rebels also demanded the release from the Basilan jail of five of their colleagues, and the elimination of poaching by foreign vessels in Philippine waters, notably the Mindanao Sea.
The Abu Sayyaf's demands were contained in a letter addressed to President Estrada and sent through Padilla.
"This has a positive impact because we have freed the (two) hostages," Ahmad said.
He also said they have told Padilla their demands and Padilla will in turn convey them to President Estrada.
The gunmen have also vowed to hold on to the remaining captives until they obtain a satisfactory answer to their demands.
"We will wait for Malacañang's reply," Ahmad said, adding that the release of the victims now depended on the government.
Twenty-one hostages were set free last month in exchange for food and medicine, while two were exchanged for the wife and children of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, who were snatched along with other relatives in a counter-abduction by a group of armed vigilantes.
National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre, head of a management crisis committee handling the hostage drama, said the actor would also go to the vigilantes' lair to persuade them to release some of their own captives.
The Abu Sayyaf began negotiations with Padilla and the government team Thursday after Manila decided to meet the rebels' demand for 200 sacks of rice.
Aguirre said they would consider the rebels' demands from the standpoint of legality, morality and appropriateness.
He added that his committee will not act beyond the authority granted them by the President and the law.
"Everything will be decided on the bases of what is allowed by the law and the Constitution," Aguirre stressed.
The rebels also withdrew their threat to behead their male hostages.
Aguirre warned the Abu Sayyaf that there was a limit to the government's patience.
"If peaceful means are exhausted, then you all know that there is such a thing as a decision of last recourse," Aguirre said without elaborating.
He also clarified that the government's permission for Padilla to act as mediator should not be construed as giving in to the rebels' demands.
"Our primordial concern is the safety of the hostages," Aguirre stressed.
He defended the involvement of Padilla in the negotiations by saying anybody was welcome to take part in the mediation provided he was credible and acceptable to the other party.
Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez criticized the government's decision to tap Padilla.
Golez also said the government should stop giving in to the demands of the Abu Sayyaf gunmen who, he said, were only after media mileage.
Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican confirmed that Malacañang granted full authority for the Aguirre committee to make judgment decisions regarding the negotiations.
In Iloilo City, newly installed Senate President Franklin Drilon expressed optimism that Padilla could use his charm to obtain the safe release of the remaining Abu Sayyaf hostages.
"I welcome the presence of Robin Padilla if it will help resolve the hostage situation," Drilon said.
He said the Senate has no particular stand on Padilla's involvement in the Basilan crisis.
Drilon also gave assurances that under his leadership, the Senate would ensure that Mindanao gets its fair share of the national budget to speed up the economic development of the island.
Meanwhile, Aguirre's committee dispatched an emissary to the camp of the vigilantes holding nine relatives of Janjalani.
The mediator, Alonto Sahiron, carried a letter appealing to vigilante leader Abdul Mijal to reconsider his threat to execute the hostages.
Mijal has given the Abu Sayyaf a 15-day ultimatum to free their captives, or he will execute Janjalani's relatives.
The deadline expires today.
In another development, police defused yesterday two homemade bombs planted in a crowded market in Jolo, Sulu.
The bombs were wired to detonators and placed in gasoline-filled plastic containers.
Sulu police chief Candido Casimiro said the explosives were believed planted by Abu Sayyaf terrorists.
The group also seized last February a bank employee and an accountant just outside Jolo.
"We have intelligence reports saying the Abu Sayyaf would launch attacks to ease the ongoing government offensive against them in the province," Casimiro said. -- With Paolo Romero, Leo Solinap, AFP report