The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are preparing to launch offensives against the kidnappers holding six teachers from the Zamboanga pensinsula, Sri Lankan peace worker Umar Jaleel and microfinance employee Lea Patris.

This was after the Basilan officials approved a resolution on Thursday authorizing military troops and the PNP to track down the kidnappers, including the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who are allegedly behind the series of kidnapping and abduction incidents in Basilan.

The resolution, which also calls for the prevention of future kidnapping incidences, was handed to National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno during their visit to Basilan this morning.

Basilan Vice-Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakahalul, head of the Basilan Crisis Management Committee (CMC), said the resolution was adopted only after a negotiating panel had tried all peaceful means to secure the release of the hostages.

"We have many times negotiated [with] these kidnappers, we even used the Bishop-Ulama Council [which advocates for peace in Mindanao] to go and talk with them to convince them...but they don’t want to give us the hostages without ransom," Sakahalul said in an interview on ABS-CBN’s Top Story.

Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, AFP-Western Mindanao Command chief, welcomed the resolution. "We need such authority so that we can relentlessly pursue the kidnappers," he said.

Teodoro, meanwhile, said the military will implement a full-scale search operations to find the kidnappers.

"[Even communities claimed as MILF camps] will not be spared if there are confirmatory reports that the kidnap victims and their captors are being sheltered thereat. Warrants of arrests will be served regardless [of] who they are and where they are," he said.

The military was quick to assure civilians, however, that they would respect human rights and abide by laws on arrests and seizures.

Puno also noted that in previous meetings of the National Security Council (NSC), it had determined that there are no recognized MILF camps in Basilan.

The military plans to thresh out their strategies for rescue operations at a multi-sectoral forum tentatively set for April 23 in Zamboanga City. These include the deployment of additional troops in Basilan, including a company from the Regional Mobile Group-9.

Meanwhile, Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar said that since the situation in Basilan is reportedly "under control, he will not declare emergency rule in the province, as Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan had done in his province to address the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) kidnapping.

Sakahalul said that government troops will be focusing their offensives in selected villages in Basilan and Zamboanga where the ASG are believed to be holding their captives.

Earlier, Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said that the ASG were demanding P4 million for the freedom of kidnapped teachers in Zamboanga, while the kidnappers of Zamboanga Sibugay teachers were reportedly demanding P10 million in ransom. Lobregat said the kidnappers’ initial demands of food and medicine had been given, except for ransom payments.

The unidentified kidnappers holding Patris, meanwhile, are reportedly asking for P2.5 million. There were no reports of ransom demands for Jaleel.

Noemi Mandi, Jocelyn Enriquez, and Jocelyn Inion, who were taken by four armed men from the seas of Bangkaw-Bangkaw in Zamboanga Sibugay on March 13, are believed to have been brought to Basilan province. Authorities refused to confirm the report.

There is no definite information on the whereabouts of teachers Janet de los Reyes, Freires Quizon, and Raphael Mayonado, all of whom were kidnapped in the seas of Landang Gua, Zamboanga City on January 23. Patris and Jaleel, meanwhile, are believed to be held somewhere in Sumisip town, Basilan.

Jaleel was kidnapped in Maloong, Lamitan City on February 13, while Patris and her companion Ammad Salih were kidnapped on February 3 allegedly by MILF commander Amir Mingkong.

The Basilan vice governor said that they will be contacting the Nonviolent Peace Force, where Jaleel is a volunteer, before military offensives start.

In response to apprehensions that military and police attacks against the kidnappers would compromise the safety of the hostages, Sakahalul said they had asked the AFP and PNP to bring the hostages back safely.

(cbnnews)