MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Kidnappers holding three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sulu should not use their hostages? health as a bargaining chip to force government into negotiating for their release, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said Wednesday.

"There is only one right and correct thing to do and that is for them [kidnappers] to release the victims," Teodoro said, a day after the ABS-CBN television network aired an interview with one of the abductors of Swiss Andreas Notter, the head of the ICRC office in Zamboanga City, Italian Eugenio Vagni, and Filipina Jean Lacaba.

The kidnappers are believed to belong to a faction of the Abu Sayyaf group led by Albader Parad.

In the interview, the abductor called on the government to open negotiations because the three aid workers are getting sick.

"If we give in to that, the world [would go] topsy-turvy," Teodoro said at a press briefing at the Department of National Defense in Camp Aguinaldo.

Lacaba, who was also interviewed, urged authorities to give in to the demands of the kidnappers, saying she and her companions are very tired from having to keep up with their highly mobile captors.

But Teodoro said the "movements of soldiers, movements of policemen, and of other volunteers in the area, do not cause the fatigue or the danger to the hostages. It is the hostage taking by the [Abu Sayyaf] which is the cause of whatever ails the hostages."

Teodoro said there will be no change on how the situation will be handled by the crisis management committee headed by Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, which has been given full authority to address kidnappings in the province.

"We leave the full range of options available to them to deal with the situation," Teodoro said.

However, Teodoro refused to answer if force is now being considered to rescue the hostages.

"I don't want to second guess something like that. I mean, that is a highly tactical decision not made on our level," he said.

The three ICRC workers were snatched near the Sulu capitol on January 15 after visiting the provincial jail.

The kidnappers earlier demanded a military pullout before they would agree to negotiate for the hostages? release.

But the military, which said it had thrown a cordon around the kidnappers, has refused to heed the demand.