Eight Filipino hostages released today?

There is a strong possibility that the remaining eight Filipino hostages being held by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in the island province of Basilan may be released today, a ranking government official said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the extremist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas admitted they were being financed by international terrorist Osama bin Laden.

In another development, Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. charged that the Abu Sayyaf was merely trying to project a political agenda when it called for an expanded Muslim autonomy as a condition for the release of 21 hostages, mostly foreigners.

The ranking government official, who asked not to be identified, said the eight hostages, remnants of some 50 people, mostly schoolchildren, seized from two elementary schools in Sumisip town in Basilan two months ago, may be turned over to Presidential Adviser on Flagship Projects Robert Aventajado.

The source said President Estrada, who has been informed about the forthcoming release of the captives, gave the go-signal to government negotiators to agree to the guerrillas' demands. The source did not elaborate.

Some of the captives were released earlier in exchange for food and medicine.

After peaceful efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages, which included teachers and a Catholic priest, failed, the military launched an assault on the Abu Sayyaf's jungle hideout in Mt. Punoh Mohadje.

The attack came on the heels of the Abu Sayyaf's announcement that they beheaded two of the hostages as a birthday gift to the President last April 19.

Fr. Roel Gallardo, along with two others, was also tortured and killed by the kidnappers.

Several of the hostages were eventually rescued as government forces pressed their offensive against the fleeing guerrillas.

The clashes left dozens of soldiers and Abu Sayyaf gunmen dead.

Meanwhile, Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, alias Commander Robot, reportedly admitted in an interview with German television ZDF aired on Monday, that his group enjoyed the financial backing of Bin Laden.

Andang leads a band of Abu Sayyaf gunmen holding 21 hostages, 19 of them foreigners, for more than one month now in their jungle hideout in Sulu.

Among the captives are a German couple and their son.

Bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian dissident believed to be living in Afghanistan, is suspected by the United States authorities as having organized a terrorist network called Al-Qaeda, meaning The Base, that was allegedly behind the two bomb attacks on American embassies in east Africa in 1998 which killed 224 people.

Bin Laden, who is on the 10 Most Wanted List in the US, is believed being sheltered by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban which refused to him over for trial.

Russia also accused Bin Laden of backing rebels of its breakaway republic of Chechnya.

"If the newspaper reports are true that one of the items offered under the negotiations is expanded Muslim autonomy, then this is totally erroneous," Drilon said.

He warned that any discussions with the Abu Sayyaf on the expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) would lend some legitimacy to the terrorist organization.

Drilon cautioned Aventajado, top government negotiator on the Sulu hostage crisis, against tackling the expanded ARMM issue with the Abu Sayyaf.

The Senate committee on local government headed by Pimentel has conducted extensive public consultations in Mindanao on the autonomy issue.

Pimentel laughed off the Abu Sayyaf's demand saying the extremist guerrillas which the military and the police referred to as "bandits" were trying to create the public impression that they are freedom fighters.

"The Abu Sayyaf is just a group of bandits and scoundrels. It has no political agenda. I hope our government negotiators won't be fooled by the posturing of the Abu Sayyaf," Pimentel stressed.

He said the group was responsible for numerous kidnappings for ransom, protection racket and holdups, adding these crimes could not be considered as in furtherance of a political agenda.

Aventajado is scheduled to fly back to Sulu today to resume negotiations with the Abu Sayyaf leaders.

Aventajado said he may ask that South African Monique Strydom be released ahead of the other captives because she is pregnant.

Also being held in the jungles of Jolo, Sulu are Strydom's husband, a German family of three, a French couple, nine Malaysians, two Finns, two Filipinos and a Lebanese woman.

The victims were seized from the prominent Malaysian resort island of Sipadan off Borneo last April 23, then taken on a boat to Sulu.

Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez said hospitals in Mindanao are ready to admit the 21 hostages in Sulu once they were released by the Abu Sayyaf.

"We are ready in case there is a need for the released hostages to be taken to the nearest medical facility," Romualdez said.

Meanwhile, the health department said they are sending relievers for the health workers attending to the families displaced by the clashes between soldiers and Muslim rebels in central Mindanao.

Dr. Carmencita Banatin, chief of the department's disaster management unit, said many of the health workers in the region have already shown signs of stress and needed "psycho-social debriefing."

She said psycho-social debriefing is being given to people at high-risk areas for possible acute stress disorder resulting from natural calamities and other disasters, including war. -- With reports from AP, AFP, Mayen Jaymalin