PHILIPPINES: MOSLEM REBELS FREE TWO FILIPINA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL TEACHERS WHO HAD BEEN HELD HOSTAGE

Record ID: 648655

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: MOSLEM REBELS FREE TWO FILIPINA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL TEACHERS WHO HAD BEEN HELD HOSTAGE
  • Date: 23rd July 2000
  • Summary: ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES (JULY 22, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. MV TWO FILIPINA HOSTAGES BEING HANDED OVER TO CHIEF GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATOR ROBERT AVENTAJADO WHO SHAKES HANDS WITH ONE HOSTAGE 0.10 2. SCU ERLINDA MANUEL SMILING AND NODDING 0.15 3. SCU RELEASED HOSTAGE, ERLINDA MANUEL, AND OTHER RELEASED HOSTAGE TERESITA ACADEMIA 0.24 4. SCU CHILDREN OF RELEASED HOSTAGES 0.29 5. SCU TERESITA ACADEMIA WITH CHILDREN 0.35 6. SOUNDBITE (English) CHIEF GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATOR ROBERT AVENTAJADO SAYINGV "I think so, please recall that we were successful in releasing one German and then total of three Filipinas and four Malaysians after that, so we're exerting our best efforts to have everybody released, if possible all together, but I guess we have to follow the tempo that the Abu Sayyaf is conducting in the way of releasing the hostages. We are negotiating with them, we are not dictating, but what I can assure you is that effort is being exerted for the release of the other foreigners is the same as the effort we are exerting for the other hostages, it's just that perhaps this is the policy being adopted by the Abu Sayyaf, they want the Malaysians to be released ahead of the other foreign hostages." 1.50 7. SCU MEDIA 1.53 8. SOUNDBITE (English) AVENTAJADO SAYING "With regard to the European hostages including the South Africans, the dialogue is still ongoing with Commander Robot with regard to the release and we also expect results, positive results, out of this dialogue pretty soon." 2.18 9. MV AVENTAJADO 2.21 10. SOUNDBITE (English) AVENTAJADO SAYING "Actually I still need to get the actual report on the situation on the ground, as you know I just got back from Cebu, I will be talking with my emissaries." 2.43 11. MV AVENTAJADO SHAKING HANDS WITH PEOPLE; SCU CHATTING WITH RELEASED HOSTAGES (2 SHOTS) 3.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Reuters ID: LVA4VMA8FO8EXMV2AMUEF6VERRLJ
  • Story Text: Moslem rebels have freed two Filipina Christian school
    teachers who had been held hostage since a raid on high
    schools in Basilan in March this year.

    The latest releases came after four Malaysians, being
    held with a group of mainly foreign hostages, were set free on
    Friday (July 21) and as the government's chief negotiator said
    there were positive signs that all the hostages could soon be
    released.

    The separatist rebels in the Philippines have now freed
    eight captives in the past seven days. Negotiators said
    chances were good that more of the remaining 31 hostages would
    soon be released.

    The two school teachers released were brought by boat
    from Basilan to Jolo and then to Zamboanga for a formal
    handover ceremony.

    The two hostages, Teresita Academia, 39, and her 59-year
    old colleague Erlinda Manuel, said they were very happy to be
    free.

    Academia said she was pregnant when abducted and
    suffered a miscarriage in June after being forced by the
    rebels to trek through the jungles of Basilan to flee pursuing
    troops.

    The Abu Sayyaf abducted more than 70 people, mostly
    children, after the raid on two Basilan high schools on March
    20 this year. Many were released but four were killed and 15
    were rescued in an encounter with the military.

    The rebels beheaded two of the hostages when the
    government refused to give in to their demands, which included
    the release of Islamic militants jailed in the United States
    for the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Centre.

    The government's chief negotiator, Robert Aventajado,
    was upbeat about the prospect of more releases. "Please recall
    that we were successful in releasing one German and then total
    of three Filipinas and four Malaysians after that, so we're
    exerting our best efforts to have everybody released, if
    possible all together, but I guess we have to follow the tempo
    that the Abu Sayyaf is conducting in the way of releasing the
    hostages."
    "With regard to the European hostages including the
    South Africans, the dialogue is still ongoing with Commander
    Robot with regard to the release and we also expect results,
    positive results, out of this dialogue pretty soon,"
    Aventajado said, adding that he believed the female hostages
    would be released soon.

    The rebels also hold 17 other captives -- a German
    reporter and three French television journalists seized
    earlier this month while covering the hostage crisis, and 13
    Filipino evangelists who went to the rebel bastion to pray for
    the hostages.

    Publicly, the Philippines, Malaysia and other
    governments whose nationals are involved say no ransom will be
    paid. But no kidnapping in the southern Philippines, a region
    rife with banditry, insurgency and piracy, has been resolved
    without either ransom or the use of force.


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