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Arroyo Orders Military Assault On Hostage Takers
MANILA, May 28 (News Agencies) - Philippine President Gloria Arroyo ordered a military assault Monday on the Abu Sayyaf rebel group holding 20 hostages, including three Americans, abducted from a tourist resort.
"The president has decided to meet force with force so there will be no [negotiations for] ransom," her spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said after Arroyo chaired a meeting of top security officials.
"The only kind of negotiation will be for the unconditional release of the hostages."
The president took the hardline stance after a spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf admitted Monday the group had kidnapped the three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort off the western island of Palawan Sunday.
An Abu Sayyaf spokesman said in a radio interview that the hostages had been taken in separate groups to the southern islands of Basilan and Sulu.
The government offered a 100-million-peso ($1.9 million) bounty for leaders and members of the kidnapping group.
Tiglao said five million pesos would be given to anyone who provided information leading to the capture of Abu Sayyaf leaders and one million pesos to anyone who helped nab lower-ranking members of the group.
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya said two factions within the group were holding the hostages separately.
He said his faction held the Americans - Guillermo Sobero and Christian missionaries Martin Burnham and his wife Gracia - along with seven Filipinos in Basilan island.
Another group based in nearby Jolo island was holding 10 other Filipinos, he told local radio station DZXL.
Sabaya did not make any demands but said: "The government only listens to us if we take hostages. Now that we have three Americans, you should not take us for granted."
Arroyo was in no mood for talking.
"To the bandits, listen carefully: I will finish what you started," a stern-looking Arroyo declared on national television.
"Force against force, arms against arms. That is what you asked for when you challenged me. I will give it to you."
Speaking after the meeting of top security officials, Arroyo told the Abu Sayyaf that security forces "will not stop their search till you are all finished off or surrender."
"At the same time, I warn you that you will find no peace. You can run but you will not get far."
Her firm line came despite appeals from some of the captives for the government to negotiate their safe release.
"We are safe. Our needs are being met," said Martin Burnham, 41, who has been in the Philippines with his 42-year-old wife Gracia since 1986.
"We would like to appeal for a safe negotiation," he told the DZXL radio station by telephone.
Originally from Wichita, Kansas, the Burnhams were celebrating their wedding anniversary at Dos Palmas, an upmarket resort off Palawan island, when it was raided by the rebels.
Filipino hostage Raul Recio said in the radio interview: "The government should think twice before launching a rescue effort."
The guerrillas said they evaded a naval blockade in the Sulu Sea to take their captives to their strongholds 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Palawan.
Military spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan, however, said Sabaya was using a satellite telephone and could be calling from anywhere as a diversionary tactic.
AFP reporters in Palawan said a military plane deposited about 300 paratroopers in the provincial capital, Puerto Princesa, on Monday.
The special forces troops had six trucks, crates of ammunition, radio receivers and anti-tank rifles.
Security guards foiled another raid by suspected rebels in a resort, Pearl Farm, off the southern city of Davao last week, but the raiders killed two hotel staff and wounded three others. Sabaya denied that Abu Sayyaf forces were involved.
The Abu Sayyaf, whose leaders are said by the military to have been trained in Afghanistan, were behind a similar hostage drama last year that began in a Malaysian island resort and ended in Jolo.
The gunmen held out for four months before swapping more than two-dozen hostages for millions of dollars in ransom.
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