PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur, Philippines—–(UPDATE 3) Manobo gunmen abandoned their 12 remaining hostages early Wednesday morning as security forces mounted what the authorities would describe only as a “calibrated operation” to secure their release.
Senior Supt. Nestor Fajurra, spokesperson of the crisis management committee, said no shots were fired in the events that led to the recovery of the 12 remaining hostages from an upland forest area outside the village of La Purisima at about 6 a.m.
Security forces were in pursuit of at least five gunmen, he added.
“The hostages were recovered by soldiers at Purok (community) 6, La Purisima village after they were left behind by the kidnappers around 6 a.m.,” Maj. Julio Eugenio Osias IV, spokesperson of the army’s 4th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City, said.
Fajurra said “a calibrated operation” was carried out by Army and police forces to put pressure on the kidnappers after talks bogged down Sunday.
“We started by talking to the kidnappers and extended other humanitarian gestures to appease them, but the negotiations appeared to be going nowhere, so we decided to take it to the next level by applying a little bit of pressure,” Fajurra told the Inquirer by phone.
He said the “lull” provided the local crisis management committee with the needed space to explore and implement the other option of conducting “calculated operation” against the hostage takers.
“The victims are now in the hands of the authorities, and are undergoing debriefing, medical and psychiatric examinations. They are all okay,” Fajurra said.
As to the fate of the hostage-takers, Fajura said the police will “let the framework of the law decide their fate.”
The gunmen had demanded the release of Ondo Perez, their leader who has been jailed for a similar offense, and the titling of their ancestral domain.
A report from Agence France Presse earlier said 13 hostages have been rescued.
But Prosperidad Mayor Alvin Magdamit, who heads the crisis management committee, gave only 11 names. They are Narciso Oliveros, district supervisor, Department of Education-CARAGA; Apolonio Alibangbang, head teacher, La Purisima Elementary School; Filipina Quitoy, teacher-in-charge, Gacub Primary School; Arnold Quitoy; Joel Sausa, district property custodian; Manuel Mordeno, teacher-in-charge, New Maasin Elementary School; Mary Jane Bedrijo, volunteer pre-school teacher; Allan Galdiano, teacher; Daldy Rodriguez, habal-habal driver; Rico Binambang and Galvan Vocales.
The 12th hostage freed was an 8-year-old child, he said.
“As of 6:00 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday) I was informed by the police that the hostages are on their way down from the mountain. It appears that all of them were unharmed,” Interior Secretary Jessie Robredo said.
Five Manobo gunmen seized 15 teachers and children on Friday in a bid to get the government to free Ondo Perez, a jailed relative.
Perez is in jail and awaiting trial for murder as well as for kidnapping a group of 79 people, including teachers and schoolchildren, in Prosperidad in 2009.
The gunmen, who police said did not understand Philippine legal processes, freed three of the hostages on Sunday and Monday and later received assurances from the government that Perez would be tried fairly.
“That was the only thing we could offer,” Robredo said. “They did not demand ransom and none was offered.”
At the same time, the gunmen were made to understand in no uncertain terms that the government would use force if the hostages were not freed soon, Robredo said.
“President (Benigno) Aquino had standing orders to be patient in negotiations, but he was very firm in saying that certain things cannot be negotiated,” Robredo added.
“They (the kidnappers) will be made to account for what they did.”
Resource-rich but impoverished Mindanao makes up roughly the southern third of the Philippines. Communist and Muslim insurgencies have claimed thousands of lives on the island over recent decades.
Robredo said the kidnappers were former members of local militia forces that were given guns to help defend remote communities in Mindanao and elsewhere from guerrilla attacks.
“After they were separated from the (government-backed militia force), their guns were not recovered and that is why they are armed,” he said.
He said he had ordered the police forces, which come under his direct supervision, to take steps to disarm former militiamen so they could not use government-issue weapons to commit crime.
Senior members of a Mindanao-based Muslim clan and nearly 200 members of their government-armed militia force are on trial for the November 2009 abductions and murders of 57 people including political rivals and journalists.
For a related interview on Magdamit, listen to Radyo Inquirer, DZIQ 990 AM.
<strong><em>With reports from Kate Evangelista and Karen Bonconcan, INQUIRER.net, Marlon Ramos, PDI, and AFP</em></strong>