Abu Sayyaf rebels holding 21 hostages in Jolo, Sulu repeated yesterday their demand to swap an ailing German captive for the relatives of their leader still being held by a vigilante group in the island-province.
An Abu Sayyaf spokesman told a Western Mindanao radio station the rebels also wanted military operations against the extremists suspended as another condition for the release of 57-year-old German woman Renate Wallert, who is suffering from hypertension.
But negotiators hoping to secure Wallert's release returned empty-handed again yesterday. "We did not see the hostages. They were far away," said former Libyan ambassador Rajab Azzarouq, a key mediator in the hostage crisis, after returning from talks.
He said, without elaborating, that the rebels reiterated to the four-member negotiating team a set of demands they first aired Thursday.
It was not immediately known whether the demands will be met by the authorities, which announced the Abu Sayyaf was widely expected to release Wallert yesterday.
This developed as police said that 12 journalists, 11 of them foreigners, covering the drawn-out hostage crisis in Sulu island were themselves missing.
"They are missing," said Col. Candido Casimiro of the journalists whose vehicle was found abandoned near a rebel stronghold. Some journalists had previously hiked to the Abu Sayyaf hideout, spent at least one night there and returned safely.
Abu Sayyaf rebels are also holding Wallert's husband and son, as well as nationals from France, Finland, South Africa, Lebanon, the Philippines and Malaysia.
They were snatched from a Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan off Sabah on April 23 and brought across the sea border to Sulu.
"If they want us to free the sick German woman then they should first release the captives held by Lidjal (the vigilante group)," Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Ahmad said on Radio Mindanao.
Abdul Lidjal, vigilante leader in Basilan, is holding the mother, sister and seven other relatives of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani.
They were taken captive by the vigilante group in retaliation for the abduction by the Abu Sayyaf of a group of all-Filipino hostages, mostly teachers and children, from two schools in Basilan island.
The military rescued 15 of the captives but the guerrillas killed six others, one of them Roman Catholic priest Fr. Rhoel Gallardo, and continue to hold around nine others.
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Ahmad's statement over the radio was made as officials expressed optimism German hostage Wallert would be released yesterday.
Preparations were being made to provide emergency treatment for Wallert before flying her to Manila for an official handover to the German government, officials said.
"We are sending the people there to formalize the turnover," Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari told Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora by telephone, an Agence France Presse reporter at the scene in Jolo said.
Misuari said the rebels wanted to turn over Wallert yesterday.
"Hopefully, in the afternoon, we can finally get this matter in our hands," he said.
"They (the rebels) wanted the turnover this morning," Misuari said after a breakfast meeting with negotiators and officials who stepped up efforts on Friday to end the nearly three-week-old hostage crisis.
"A release is imminent," said Robert Aventajado, presidential adviser on flagship projects who is coordinating negotiations.
Aventajado said a four-member team, including top government negotiator Ghazali Ibrahim and former Libyan envoy Azzarouq, left for the Abu Sayyaf camp yesterday to talk with the rebels.
Asked whether other hostages could be released, Aventajado said: "Maybe just one."
When reporters pressed him for assurances Wallert could be released, Aventajado said: "There is some kind of understanding but of course they can still change their mind."
"Nothing is 100 percent (sure) in this kind of situation," he added.
He said Wallert may be given emergency medical treatment and then be sent by jet, on standby in Jolo, to Manila where Mr. Estrada would officially hand her over to a German envoy.
Ibrahim and his aides slept at an Abu Sayyaf hideout overnight to finalize preparations for Wallert's release.
Seven letters written on Thursday by the hostages to their relatives and friends were delivered personally by Abu Sayyaf emissaries to Azzarouq. The hostages said they were being moved from place to place and not getting enough food and water.
Government negotiators have not spoken of any specific conditions for the release of Wallert.
But Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. said on Friday that Abu Sayyaf gunmen had asked for "reimbursement for the cost of board and lodging," the term used by extremists for ransom.
Siazon said it would be "up to the people on the ground to determine" whether to grant it.
Government negotiators earlier denied reports that the extremist guerrilla group had asked for between P50,000 and P70,000 for each captive.
Nearly all previous Abu Sayyaf kidnappings have ended with payments for "board and lodging," a term used by both the guerrillas and the government, which has a policy of not paying ransom.
In Basilan, meanwhile, the Abu Sayyaf had divided their nine remaining Filipino hostages into three groups to elude pursuing soldiers, another spokesman for the bandits told a local radio station.
Abu Asmad Salayudi told dxRZ-Radyo Agong that they are still holding their hostages in a mountain lair.
He also denied reports that he and Janjalani were hurt during an encounter with government troops.
In fact, Salayudi said they were able to get ten M-16 rifles with grenade launchers, an M-60 machinegun and two M-14 rifles during that gunbattle in Kanibungan, Lantawan.
The military had said that the soldiers were ambushed in that encounter, but Salayudi claimed they actually outfought government troops.
On the other hand, Lt. Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, chief of the AFP Public Affairs Group in Mindanao, laughed off Salayuddi's claim.
"Nobody believes him," he said. "Salayuddi is a liar."
In other developments yesterday, the five million-strong Protestant group Philippines for Jesus Movement (PJM) joined the Catholic Church in a crusade for peace in Mindanao.
The PJM said in a statement said their vision is "to encourage the people regardless of denomination and religious for God's healing of the nation."
In Manila, Mayor Lito Atienza urged for continued talks between the government and Muslim rebels.
"There are many issues to be answered ... All these have to be settled on the negotiation table. Everyone will end up the losers if it is the barrel of the gun that will do the talking. No one will win in a shooting war," he said.
Atienza, however, said the idea of setting up a separate Islamic state in Mindanao is not a talking point.
"We will not be a party to the dismemberment of the country," he said. --