Beijing scores Kudarat killings

China demanded yesterday an explanation from the Philippine government for the killing of two Chinese kidnap victims as they fled from their captors during a rescue operation over the weekend.

The Chinese Embassy made the demand even as the Arroyo administration expressed its condolences for the death of Zhang Zongqiang and Xue Xin.

Chinese Ambassador Wang Chungui, in an "urgent" visit to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday, voiced Beijing’s "profound shock and pain" at the death of the two victims.

Both victims were employees of the Chinese firm overseeing the construction of the $2.7-billion Malitubog-Marigadao (Malmar) irrigation project in North Cotabato.

Beijing "has demanded that the Philippine government immediately provide an explanation of this affair" and "take the necessary measures to safeguard the lives of the hostages still alive as well as those of all Chinese working or living in the Philippines."

Beijing also asked immediate medical attention to rescued hostage Wang Sheng-li, who managed to escape from their captors by jumping into a 10-foot ravine covered with thick vegetation as pursuing rescue troopers engaged the kidnappers in a firefight.

The embassy also asked the government to provide arrangements for the bodies of the slain victims.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao, however, said the DFA had already provided an official account of the tragedy to the Chinese ambassador during his visit.

Tiglao said the death of the two was an "unfortunate turn of events which pursuing government forces did not want to happen."

At the same time, a senior Chinese embassy official said at Camp Aguinaldo that they are concerned with the safety of the remaining hostages and did not blame the Philippine military for the incident.

"We don’t know what really happened but we are not blaming the Philippine military. Right now, we are concerned with the safety of the (remaining) hostages," the official said.

The military is also guarding some 60 other Chinese nationals who continue to work on the Malmar dam, which has been declared a priority project of the Arroyo administration.

The bodies of the two slain hostages were to be flown to Manila yesterday while Wang is undergoing debriefing at the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Awang, North Cotabato.

Zhang was an engineer with China Electric Power Technology Import and Export Corp. which supervises the Japanese-funded Malmar project.

The engineer was kidnapped by five armed men along a deserted stretch of the Cotabato-Davao highway while he was enroute to the project site in Carmen, Cotabato from Davao City.

On the other hand, Xue was among the four others who were kidnapped in Datu Paglas, Sultan Kudarat on Aug. 12 as they were paying the P5-million ransom for the engineer.

Instead of releasing the engineer, however, the group also held the four others for ransom and brought them to their hideout in the marshlands straddling the provinces of Maguindanao, Cotabato And Sultan Kudarat.

The remaining hostages are Zhang’s brother, Zhang Zong-yi and Davao-based Filipino-Chinese trader Edwin Lim.

But villagers between Barangays Bunawan and Polomolok in Colombio, Sultan Kudarat tipped off the authorities on the presence of the kidnappers and their captives.

Two companies of 47th Infantry Battalion backed up by two MG-520 attack helicopters were sent to check the reports and stumbled on some 60 kidnap gang members around 9 a.m. of Sunday.

The military said seven of the kidnappers were killed in the firefight while there were no reported casualties on the government side.

Two of the five slain kidnappers were positively identified as members of an influential Muslim family in Pagalungan, Maguindanao, according to North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol.

Piñol heads the crisis management committee negotiating for the victims’ release.

Authorities earlier said the group was led by a certain Tahir Alonto, who is said to be a leader of a lost command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had forged a ceasefire agreement with the government in Putrajaya, Malaysia two weeks ago.

Alonto was captured last year and detained at the General Santos City jail but was sprung from prison by his henchmen.

Piñol said the kidnappers, along with Zhang and Lim, were last seen fleeing toward Tulunan town in North Cotabato with more than a dozen wounded cohorts. — Aurea Calica, Marichu Villanueva, Paolo Romero, John Unson