ZAMBOANGA CITY—Moro kidnappers tied up a tearful Ces Drilon and her cameraman and set a noon deadline Tuesday for the delivery of P15 million in cash ransom, a negotiator said Monday.

“Mayor, I want to get out of here,” Indanan Mayor Alvarez Isnaji quoted the 46-year-old Drilon as telling him. The ABS-CBN broadcast journalist is being held in a forested area on Jolo island, together with cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion and Mindanao State University Prof. Octavio Dinampo.

Isnaji said the Moro bandits announced their ultimatum after they saw Marines approaching on Saturday. The kidnappers repeated the deadline on Sunday and Monday.

“Early this morning, they called again, as did Ces,” said Isnaji, who has been negotiating the release of the three hostages. “The kidnappers took a strong position and said that their ultimatum is only up to noon (Tuesday).”

The mayor said that Drilon, Encarnacion and Dinampo were “tied up again” and that their situation “was not good.” Philippine Daily Inquirer reporters in Zamboanga spoke by telephone with Isnaji, who was in Indanan.

Isnaji said he talked to Drilon, whom he described as being “tearful” in an interview with The Associated Press. He said Drilon had told him she wanted to get out of the kidnappers’ lair, according to AP.

Drilon, Encarnacion, Dinampo and another ABS-CBN cameraman, Angelo Valderama, were kidnapped in Maimbung, Sulu, on June 8 while they were on the way to interview a top commander of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group. Valderama was freed on June 12 after a P2-million ransom was reportedly paid.

Isnaji said the latest ransom demand was reduced from P20 million to P15 million based on what was reportedly agreed upon by the kidnappers and Drilon’s family.

According to the Indanan mayor, the kidnappers had given instructions to have a representative of the Drilon family deliver the P15 million to him sometime Tuesday.

Isnaji also said that all communication should now pass through him.

“I cannot do anything . . . The parents want to pay,” he said.

Negotiation at gunpoint

Isnaji said the kidnappers told him that Drilon’s family had direct contact with them and had agreed to pay the ransom. But the mayor quoted Drilon as telling him that she only agreed to the ransom payment because the kidnappers were pointing a gun at her and that her family had no money, AP reported.

In a statement, however, the families of Drilon and Encarnacion denied they were negotiating with the kidnappers.

“Only Mayor Isnaji is directly communicating with the kidnappers,” their statement said, according to AP. “We are counting on him for the release of Ces and Jimmy and continue to pray for his efforts.”

Isnaji said the kidnappers had not threatened to kill the hostages if the deadline for the payment of ransom was not met, but said that they could take a “strong position” and would dictate when they would act without giving details.

“It would not be easy for us,” he said.

No money to pay

Isnaji, a former Moro rebel commander, said Drilon appealed to him to work out her early release after she received reports that her abduction had affected her mother’s health.

“She told me she was homesick and wanted to go home immediately. She was saddened after she learned that her mother had suffered a stroke,” Isnaji said.

The mayor said he met with Drilon’s brother and sister in Zamboanga City on Saturday, but they did not say they were willing to pay the ransom.

“What they said was they don’t have the money to pay,” he said.

ABS-CBN reiterates policy

The ultimatum came after the military deployed troops and shelled a forested area on Sunday where the kidnappers were believed holding the hostages.

Taken to the Sulu provincial hospital for treatment of shrapnel wounds were civilians Merna Abon, Wawan Ibni, Ismael Idjah, Apa Atan and Bia Bahari, according to Isnaji’s office.

In Manila, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. reiterated in a statement Monday that it would not pay any ransom for the victims, saying to do so would only “embolden kidnap for ransom groups to abduct other journalists, putting more lives at risk.”

“ABS-CBN is doing everything it can to help them (Drilon and Encarnacion) and their families through this harrowing ordeal,” the statement said.

The country’s biggest broadcast network also bristled at reports it had abandoned Drilon and Encarnacion. “We are deeply saddened and troubled by accusations that ABS-CBN has abandoned Ces and Jimmy.” But it was unclear where the accusations came from.

An ABS-CBN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the network was preparing for the worst. “We are bracing ourselves for the military option,” the official said.

2 kidnappers identified

In Camp Crame, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said it had identified two Abu Sayyaf members in the group that abducted Drilon and her crew.

Chief Supt. Sukarno Ikbala identified the two as Sulaiman Patta, alias Amah Ma’as and Abu Harris, and a certain Walid, alias Tuan Wals.

Ikbala also said the Department of Interior and Local Government put up Monday a P1-million reward each for any information that would lead to the capture of the two suspects.

Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome, PNP spokesperson, reiterated the government’s “no ransom” policy and said that the PNP had “taken cognizance” of the deadline.

Shelling a separate operation

“The negotiations are taking their own course. If negotiation is the only way out then, we’ll give it a chance,” he said.

In Camp Aguinaldo, the military reiterated that Sunday’s shelling in Jolo was not part of efforts to rescue Drilon and her group. Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, told reporters Monday that the shelling had ceased.
“It is a separate incident and it is part of the ongoing operation against the terrorist Abu Sayyaf. It was planned earlier and we are just pursuing that operation,” Torres said.

“We cannot compromise our operation in going after the other terrorists,” he said. “But we are very careful in conducting our operation … in doing anything that may lead to the harming of Ms Ces Drilon and her group.”

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said he was very concerned about the situation of the three hostages with the shelling and the issuance of the ultimatum. “My own personal assessment is they are in very grave danger because they are in the hands of criminals who can show no mercy.”

Moro kidnapper killed

Also Monday, Army Maj. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito said Akiddin Abdusalam, a leader of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was slain in a gun battle in Mindanao on Saturday. Two other gunmen escaped, Pajarito told reporters.

Abdusalam had been accused in the kidnapping of three Italian missionaries: Luciano Benedetti who was abducted in Mindanao in 1998, followed by Giuseppe Pierantoni in 2001 and Giancarlo Bossi last year. All three were later freed unharmed after private negotiators paid unspecified ransoms. With reports from Leila Salaverria, Ed General, Inquirer Mindanao, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse