MANILA, Philippines -- Speaker Prospero Nograles on Tuesday called for a news blackout on the kidnapping of broadcast journalist Ces Drilon and her TV crew in Sulu so as not to jeopardize operations to secure them.

”If we keep on speculating, we are in fact going to jeopardize the safety of these people. It's best to have a news blackout about it, and stop talking about it, and just hope for the best,'' he told reporters.

Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama were reportedly seized by the Abu Sayyaf in the hills of Indanan, Sulu last Saturday.

Nograles said he and other leaders from Mindanao were “worried” about Drilon and her companions, as well as the implication of their kidnapping on the country's image.

”All of us in government are worried about [the kidnapping], especially the congressmen in Mindanao, because it's giving us a bad name,” the House leader from Davao City told reporters.

”We've been trying to put Mindanao [on the map] as a good tourism and investment haven, and now this thing happens. It's going to set us back again. It's going to be a Mindanao problem,'' he added.

The Speaker said local leaders, from governors to mayors, are helping authorities locate, secure and bring Drilon and her crew home safely.

”Our congressmen from Mindanao, the administration governors and mayors of Lakas-NUCD have been asked to help with no fanfare. Let's not jeopardize their safety,'' he said.

Nograles, who admitted getting updates on the case via text messages “from the ground,” believed it was a case of kidnapping for ransom.

”I based my speculation on the previous experiences that happened in the area. And it has always been kidnap for ransom,” he said, theorizing that an organized group was behind the kidnapping.