A kidnap-for-ransom group threatened Tuesday to behead the remaining Chinese hostages if the military continues pursuit operations in the southern Philippine province of Sultan Kudarat, a TV station reported.
Bandit leader Abu Hamsa said his group will kill the Chinese hostage, Zhang Zhongyi, together with a local Filipino Chinese businessman, Edwin Lim, if the government would not stop the operations and produce the ransom money, the ABS-CBN news channel reported.
Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao and Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan both said on Monday that pursuit operations against the kidnappers will continue to rescue the two men despite the fact that two of the four Chinese hostages were killed Sunday during an encounter between their captors and the pursuing government forces.
However, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lauro Baja disclosed Tuesday in an interview with dzMM radio that the military was not supposed to be involved in the government action on the kidnapping case of Chinese nationals in the south.
Baja said that during the annual bilateral consultation held in Manila last week, Philippine National Police chief Leandro Mendoza assured Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi that "the safety of the hostages is the priority and that there will be no military operation to rescue them, which will endanger their lives."
Baja said they will "tell them (China) what really happened after we receive an accurate report from the military."
According to the military, government soldiers engaged about 60 kidnap gang members Sunday morning in Colombio town in Sultan Kudarat. During the gunbattle, two of the Chinese hostages, Zhang Zhongqiang and Xue Xing, tried to flee but were immediately shot dead by their captors while a third, Wang Shengli, managed to escape and was recovered.
Zhang Zhongqiang was kidnapped on June 20 in Sultan Kudarat’s neighboring province of Maguindanao. His brother Zhang Zhongyi, Xue and Wang, together with Lim, were seized on August 12 while reportedly delivering ransom money for the release of Zhang Zhongqiang.
The four Chinese nationals are employees of the China Electric Power Technology Import and Export Corp. working on an irrigation project in North Cotabato province.
The kidnappers had demanded 10 million U.S. dollars for their release, but it was rejected by the Chinese and Philippine governments.
( Xinhua News Agency 08/21/2001)
