Manila Maintains No-Ransom Policy in Hostage CrisisThe Philippine government reiterated Tuesday its policy of rejecting any demands for ransom in exchange for the release of the 21 hostages, 19 of them foreigners, now being held by the Abu Sayyaf in southern Sulu Province.Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Puno told reporters that the government "is not interested in discussing ransom and our policy is that we are not going to pay ransom in this particular matter." Puno also clarified a newspaper report that Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora has allegedly confirmed the existence of a 1 million-U.S. dollar demand for each of the 21 hostages by the Abu Sayyaf, saying Zamora has been misquoted or quoted out of context. He said the executive secretary had prefaced his remarks about the ransom demand with the words "there are reports." "Remember we were talking here of figures that have been floating all over the place but were not the subject of any formal demand by any credible Abu Sayyaf leader," Puno said. Zamora himself, in a radio interview on Tuesday, denied having made that confirmation, Puno pointed out. According to Puno, Secretary Robert Aventajado, chief government negotiator on the hostage case, has also told him that there has been no formal demand for ransom money by the Abu Sayyaf. The 21 hostages, including three Germans, two French, two Finns, two South Africans, a Lebanese, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos, were kidnapped from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 and then taken to Sulu Province. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |