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Philippine forces lose track of ailing Red Cross hostage

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Manila- Philippine security forces have lost track of an ailing Italian Red Cross worker held by Muslim militants on a southern island for over 100 days, a Marine spokesman acknowledged Monday. Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo appealed for public “patience and understanding” as security forces tried to determine the exact location of Eugenio Vagni, a staffer of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The 62-year-old Vagni, who reportedly needs medical attention due to a hernia injury, has been held captive by Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels in the the jungles of Jolo island,
1,000 kilometres south of Manila, since January 15.

“The military continues to intensify intelligence gathering to ensure that it has certainty as to the exact whereabouts of the kidnap victim and his captors,” Arevalo said.

“The public can trust the military commanders in Jolo who are now in charge of military operations that they are in control,” he added. “They have the training, experience and maturity to prudently and adroitly deal with the situation.”

Vagni was abducted along with two Red Cross colleagues, Swiss national Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba after they visited the Jolo provincial jail to oversee a water and sanitation project.

The rebels freed Lacaba on April 2 and Notter on April 17.

Governor Abdusakur Tan, who heads a committee handling the hostage crisis, ordered the military to launch rescue operations to save Vagni shortly after Notter was freed.

But those efforts have been hampered by lack of information on where Vagni was being held by the kidnappers.

The government last week offered a 500,000-peso (10,256-dollar) reward for information on his location following reports that the Italian had been abandoned by his captors.

Arevalo said the rebels were suspected to have hidden to evade the military operations.

“The fact that the terrorist group already knew that there’s nothing that will prevent the security forces from hitting them at an opportune time is already a pressure strong enough for them to flee,” he said.

The Abu Sayyaf rebels have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks and high-profile kidnappings in the Philippines. They have beheaded hostages, including an American tourist abducted in 2001, when authorities failed to meet their demands.(dpa)

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Philippine military steps up pressure on Red Cross kidnappers

April 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Manila – The Philippine military has tightened a security cordon around Muslim militants holding captive an Italian Red Cross worker, officials said Monday.

Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62, was one of three Red Cross workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on January 15. He is reportedly suffering from a hernia injury.

The rebels have freed Vagni’s two colleagues, Swiss Andreas Notter on April 17 and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba on April 2.

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said troops were repositioning to “add pressure” on the kidnappers.

“We are re-aligning the deployment of our personnel based on (the kidnappers’) movements,” he said. “As much as possible, we are trying to contain them in a more or less smaller location so that they can be easily located.”

The three Red Cross hostages were abducted after visiting the Jolo provincial jail to oversee a water and sanitation project.

Abu Sayyaf rebels earlier threatened to behead one of the hostages if the military did not pull out from a large part of Jolo island.

The guerrillas have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks and high-profile kidnappings in the Philippines. They also have beheaded hostages, including an American tourist abducted in 2001, when authorities failed to meet their demands. (dpa)

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Philippines, US open two-week joint military exercises

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Manila – The Philippines and the United States on Thursday began two weeks of joint military exercises involving at least 6,000 US troops, who were reminded to behave amid continuing controversy over an American Marine convicted of rape in 2006.

The American soldiers are to join about 2,000 Filipino troops in humanitarian missions, field training on counterterrorism and exercises on disaster response and rehabilitation during the exercises, called Balikatan, which means shoulder-to-shoulder.

Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a Philippine Marine spokesman, said the annual Balikatan war games would benefit both Filipino and American soldiers.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will learn from updated technical expertise and training while our US counterparts will learn from the AFP’s actual experience and applications,” he said.

US Brigadier General Ronald Bailey, deputy commander of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, reminded US soldiers participating in the exercises to be at their best behaviour even during breaks in the training.

Bailey said he told his men “to honour the culture of this country” and to maintain “order and discipline … all the time.”

The Balikatan was being held amid an unresolved controversy over whether US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, 23, convicted of rape in December 2006, should be imprisoned in a facility controlled by Philippine authorities.

Smith has been in the custody of the US embassy in Manila since his conviction in the rape of a Filipino woman in Olongapo City, 90 kilometres north of Manila, where he participated in the Balikatan in 2005. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Smith has appealed his conviction, and the US embassy insisted that a visiting forces agreement between the Philippines and the United States allows for Smith to remain in US custody until the conviction becomes final.

That agreement details the rules on the treatment of US forces visiting the Philippines for training and joint military exercises with Filipino troops.

But the Philippine Supreme Court ruled in February that a diplomatic agreement to detain Smith at the US embassy was not in line with the pact and ordered authorities to negotiate a new arrangement for Smith’s incarceration.

Smith was one of thousands of US soldiers who participated in joint military exercises in the Philippines in 2005. His co-accused – Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier – were acquitted for lack of evidence. (dpa)

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Philippine police file criminal complaints in Red Cross kidnappings

April 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Zamboanga City, Philippines – Philippine police on Monday filed criminal complaints against seven people, including three police officers, for allegedly providing support to Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers.

The suspects, who also included two village captains and two civilians, were among dozens of people rounded up last week on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on suspicion of being supporters of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels.

The seven were flown to nearby Zamboanga City over the weekend to face criminal complaints of kidnapping for ransom and illegal detention, said police spokesman Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela.

“These people acted as conspirators by providing information and logistical support to the Abu Sayyaf,” he said. “These are the people who gave the group information about the target.”

Gucela said the seven suspects, who were being detained at a regional police headquarters in Zamboanga City, have denied the charges, but he noted that most of them were relatives of Abu Sayyaf rebels involved in the hostage crisis.

The Red Cross workers – Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni – were abducted January 15 along with a Filipino colleague after visiting the provincial jail on Jolo to oversee a water and sanitation project.

Abu Sayyaf rebels freed Mary Jean Lacaba Thursday after 78 days in captivity. Authorities said no ransom was paid for Lacaba’s release.

But the kidnappers threatened to kill the remaining hostages if government forces do not withdraw from a large area of Jolo.

Authorities have rejected the demand but stressed that they were willing to negotiate a compromise to ensure that none of the hostages were harmed.

“We cannot in conscience afford to provide the bandits a safe haven for future incidents of kidnapping and piracy,” said Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a military spokesman on the hostage crisis.

But he added that a crisis committee led by Governor Abdusakur Tan was pursing “every possible means within the four corners of the law and statute to recover the victims safely.”

Arevalo said government forces were keeping the pressure on the kidnappers while “avoiding precipitate actions” that could jeopardize the hostage’s safety.

Abu Sayyaf rebels have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks and high-profile kidnappings in the Philippines. They have beheaded hostages, including an American tourist abducted in 2001, when authorities failed to meet their demands

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Philippine military steps up pressure on Red Cross kidnappers

Philippines, US open two-week joint military exercises

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