Gov't rules out $2-M ransom payment for sick German

No ransom will be paid for the release of an ailing German woman, one of 21 hostages held captive by the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo, the government said yesterday.

In fact, no ransom at all will be paid for any of the hostages, chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado said.

The rebels have reportedly demanded $2 million for the release of Renate Wallert, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon, who was with the President in China.

"The government does not pay ransom as a policy. Let's say they have some concerns regarding livelihood and if we think it's legitimate, I will relay them to the President for consideration," Aventajado said in a radio interview.

"But if we see the demands are not legitimate, we will tell them outright that they can't be granted. We won't let them hope that they will be granted," he said.

Aventajado denied a $2-million ransom demand -- or any other demand, for that matter -- was made. "As I said, we are the people on the ground. We are the ones who know," he said.

Although it has a no-ransom policy, the government has sidestepped this in the past by paying for "board and lodging," to recompense kidnappers for costs they allegedly incurred.

Aventajado said they are now just waiting for the go-signal from the Abu Sayyaf to meet with them for the negotiations. The venue has already been decided but Aventajado refused to say where.

"The meeting is still being arranged because arranging meetings like this is not simple. There are lots of things to consider such as security. But we're ready to go anytime," he said, adding they have already mapped out a plan that would hopefully lead to a speedy outcome of the negotiations.

"It goes without saying that their lives are exposed to extreme danger so we need to rescue them from that area so they can go back to their loved ones," Aventajado said.

Tension in the area following a grenade attack in a Jolo marketplace last Thursday prevented a resumption of negotiations. Authorities suspect the Abu Sayyaf was responsible.

"You know the situation, how volatile it is in Jolo, so we have to be careful with that," former Libyan ambassador Rajab Azzarouq, one of the negotiators, told reporters.

"Of course, this will make the situation a little more tense," Aventajado said. "Until we have determined that there is no connection, I will proceed and assume they are not related. I want to be focused on saving the lives of 21 hostages."

Aventajado, Azzarouq, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan and local Muslim leader Farukh Hussain comprise the negotiating team formed by President Estrada.

But Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople said Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim and Philippine National Police chief Director General Panfilo Lacson should deal with the Abu Sayyaf instead.

Ople said the rebels were just plain bandits unlike the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

In nearby Basilan, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold, a local panel of negotiators is studying a recommendation by National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre to re-open negotiations with the Abu Sayyaf there who are holding nine hostages -- two teachers and seven schoolchildren.

The hostages were from an initial group of 54, most of them children, seized in Sumisip town last March 20. The military launched a rescue attempt last month after negotiations failed.

Fifteen captives were rescued while six people were killed by the rebels.

Yesterday, the military said it was in hot pursuit of the rebels and that a grenade attack on a police station in Isabela was meant to divert their attention.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias said at least four soldiers were killed and 24 others were wounded in a rebel ambush in Upper Matikang.

Meanwhile, an influential international Muslim organization yesterday urged the Abu Sayyaf not to use violence to achieve its objectives. The World Muslim League condemned the rebels' methods, describing them as shameful and "un-Islamic."

The League's secretary general, Dr. Abdullah Bin Salem Al-Obeid, said the Abu Sayyaf should release the hostages and spare innocent people its fanaticism.

The World Muslim League is an observer in the Organization of Islamic Conference and a United Nations member. It has moral ascendancy on Muslims worldwide because it is an umbrella organization of Muslim humanitarian groups and missions. - With Roel Pareño, Perseus Echeminada, Aurea Calica, Reuters