Muslim gunmen kidnap two Philippine journalists

July 24, 2000
Web posted at: 9:48 PM HKT (1348 GMT)

JOLO, Philippines (Reuters) -- A husband and wife team working for the Philippines' top television channel was taken hostage by gunmen on the Muslim rebel stronghold of Jolo on Monday, local officials said.

The officials said gunmen kidnapped cameraman Percival Cuenca and his wife, reporter Ma'an Macapagal, of the ABS-CBN channel when they went to a rebel camp to report on dozens of mostly foreign hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf rebels.

It was not immediately clear if the couple were taken by the Abu Sayyaf or by one of the dozens of armed bandit groups which operate on Jolo, a lawless island 960 kilometers(600 miles) south of Manila.

Earlier, a mediator said the Abu Sayyaf rebels may release three Malaysian hostages on Tuesday.

Retired General Guillermo Ruiz, security adviser of the government's negotiating panel, told reporters on Monday none of the hostages was released during the day despite positive signs.

"It can be any time," he said, adding that he planned to return to Jolo from the nearby city of Zamboanga on Tuesday to await developments.

There have been high expectations over the past few days that the release of the Malaysian hostages was imminent.

Other sources close to the negotiating panel said the three Malaysians were taken from the rebel camp in the hills of Jolo and brought to a safe house prior to their formal release.

The three Malaysians were among a group of 21 mostly foreign hostages seized by the rebels from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 and brought to Jolo.

The rebels have freed six other Malaysians and ailing German woman Renate Wallert from the group, which also includes Wallert's husband and a son, three French nationals including a Lebanon-born woman who was granted French citizenship last month, two Finns, two Filipinos and two South Africans.

The rebels have also released two Filipina school teachers kidnapped on nearby Basilan island in March and a teen-age son of a Filipino soldier they killed in a gunbattle in May.

But they have kidnapped 17 others -- a German reporter and three French television journalists who were seized in recent weeks while covering the hostage drama, and 13 Filipino evangelists who went to the rebel lair to pray for the hostages and ended up being taken captive themselves.

The Abu Sayyaf is one of two groups fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Philippine Information Agency
Library of Congress Country Studies: PHILIPPINES

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