MANILA, Philippines—Hundreds of armed civilians who joined police and military forces surrounding the jungles of Indanan on Jolo island were growing restless as fresh initiatives were mounted to negotiate the release of three kidnapped Red Cross workers.

There was no immediate report on the outcome of Vice Gov. Nur-Ana Sahidulla’s latest effort to talk to the kidnappers Sunday.

“We still have to confirm if she has come back,” Lt. Col. Fatima Rasul, regional military spokesperson, told a local radio.

Sahidulla first visited the captives on Jan. 28, but failed to secure their release.

Two Muslim clerics also entered the kidnappers’ camp on Sunday and were given 24 hours to resolve the crisis, government sources said.

Senior Supt. Julasirim Kasim, Sulu provincial police chief, said the 600 civilian volunteers from different Jolo townships were deployed in strategic positions around the jungle starting Thursday. He declined to say how large an area had been cordoned off.

“We needed an emergency force to help the armed forces seal off the area of the kidnappers. It’s a vast area,” Kasim told The Associated Press by telephone.

Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin confirmed there was “fresh movement” of civilian volunteers in the Indanan hinterland.

“We are very tired now,” a member of the volunteer force told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

“We’ve been waiting for the order to go on assault. Unfortunately, someone or some people up there (national government) are again meddling in our affairs here. We really want to eliminate these bandits,” he said.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross, expressed alarm that the deployment of civilians might endanger the kidnapped workers of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“I have made an appeal to authorities to be very, very careful with these people who are not disciplined soldiers,” Gordon said. “They are civilians with arms, wearing slippers.”

Andreas Notter of Switzerland, Eugenio Vagni of Italy and Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines were seized by gunmen on Jan. 15 after they inspected a water project on Jolo.

An Abu Sayyaf commander, Albader Parad, has demanded that troops converged nearby withdraw to allow hostage negotiations.

Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan, who heads a provincial task force dealing with the crisis, has rejected any military withdrawal. He has declined to say when he will resort to force to end the crisis, saying other steps were being taken to persuade the kidnappers to free the hostages unconditionally.

Another group of suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits burned a school on Friday in Patikul near Indanan, in an apparent attempt to divert military focus from their surrounded comrades. No one was hurt in the attack, Kasim said.

Rasul said that there had been no indication that the captives had been physically harmed by the self-styled Islamist gunmen, who have been blamed for some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the Philippines, including bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings.

However, Rasul said the Italian had hypertension. The government earlier said medicine had been delivered to him to ease his condition.

Government sources said that the two Muslim clerics who entered the kidnappers’ camp were handpicked by Tan. With reports from AP, AFP and Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao