ZAMBOANGA CITY/MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE 4) Tension gripped Sulu province as government troops moved closer to an Abu Sayyaf lair in defiance of the Islamic extremists? stern warning to pull back or they would behead one of the three Red Cross captives.
Jolo town Mayor Hussin Amin said the troops were ordered to pound the extremists who have been holding hostage Filipino Mary-Jean Lacaba, Italian Eugenio Vagni, and Swiss Andreas Notter.
The Abu Sayyaf had demanded that government withdraw all its troops from five towns on the southern island of Jolo or they would behead one hostage. But the government refused to comply with the demand, saying leaving the villages would place them at the mercy of the extremists.
Sulu Governor Sakur Tan said authorities on the ground were ?preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.?
He placed the province on a state of emergency.
In Malacañang, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been keeping tabs on the hostage crisis.
"The President is closely monitoring the situation together with our security and civilian authorities,'' Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in a briefing. "We enjoin all to pray that there will be a peaceful resolution to the crisis.''
Pope Benedict XVI and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also made an appeal for their release.
"The Holy Father, in the name of God, asks their liberation and begs the authorities to favor ever peaceful solution of this dramatic episode," Monsignor Pepe Quitorio read from a copy of the Pope's statement that was sent to the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines.
International Committee of the Red Cross president Jakob Kellenberger renewed his appeal to the extremist group to free the three who were seized while on a humanitarian mission in Sulu last January 15.
Gwen Pang, Philippine National Red Cross secretary general, described the atmosphere in Sulu as "very tense."
As the 2 p.m. deadline lapsed, Pang said they have not received any report from the Abu Sayyaf group.
The PNRC has also lost contact with the group holding the three workers, Pang said.
She added that they spoke with Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro early Tuesday and the he stressed that the government would not be heeding to the demand of the Muslim extremists to withdraw troops.
"We still continue to hope and pray and I appeal to the kidnappers to release (the three). We continue to do our services in Jolo," Pang said in an interview.
Richard Gordon, chairman of the PNRC, clung to hope on Tuesday that the Abu Sayyaf would not behead one of the three workers.
In a press conference at the PNRC headquarters in Manila, Gordon said, "I hope ... I have faith that we will end with life."
He reminded the Abu Sayyaf extremists that the Red Cross would not halt its humanitarian work in Sulu even if they made good on their threat.
"Baka akala niyo pag pinatay niyo yan titigil na ang Red Cross. Nagkakamali kayo (You may be thinking that Red Cross will stop if you kill the three. You?re wrong)," he said. "We must continue."
But Tan, who heads the multi-agency crisis group Task Force ICRC, said they were ready for any eventuality.
?As far as our preparations are concerned, we cannot just allow, anything dastardly to just happen just like that, I mean and [let them] get away with it,? he said.
Founded in the 1990s by Afghan-trained firebrand Abubakar Abdurajak Janjalani to fight for an independent Islamic state, the Abu Sayyaf is the smallest, but most radical of Muslim groups in the southern Philippines.
Abdurajak was killed in a clash with police in 1998 and the group degenerated into a terrorist organization specializing in bombings, extortion and high profile kidnappings. With reports from Kristine L. Alave , TJ Burgonio, Michael Lim Ubac, Philippine Daily Inquirer; and Agence France-Presse
