Navy sailor missing in Philippines jungle

Philippine troops have stepped up their activities to prevent kidnappings

By Brad Wright
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. sailor is missing in the jungles of the Philippines after his hiking group came under rebel fire, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The sailor's name was not immediately released. A 100-member Filipino search party was to get under way at daybreak.

Officials said the sailor and four others were being escorted by Philippine soldiers on a site-seeing hike through the jungles of Mount Pinatubo when eight communist guerrillas ambushed them.

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The missing sailor was ahead of his group when the firefight broke out, officials said. Officials do not believe the missing sailor was taken prisoner, although a separate guerrilla group in recent days has taken Americans hostage on a southern island as part of an ongoing campaign of violence.

Pressed on whether the sailor was kidnapped, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the sailor was in "a different location than where the NPA members were" and that there was no "visual confirmation" he was captured.

Sailors had army escort

None of the others was injured in the firefight, Quigley said, and the

Officials said the sailor and four others were being escorted by Philippine soldiers on a site-seeing hike through the jungles of Mount Pinatubo when eight communist guerrillas ambushed them.

The missing sailor was ahead of his group when the firefight broke out, officials said. Officials do not believe the missing sailor was taken prisoner, although a separate guerrilla group in recent days has taken Americans hostage on a southern island as part of an ongoing campaign of violence.

Pressed on whether the sailor was kidnapped, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the sailor was in "a different location than where the NPA members were" and that there was no "visual confirmation" he was captured.

None of the others was injured in the firefight, Quigley said, and the guerrillas eventually allowed the group to proceed down the mountain, but only after the Filipino armed escorts turned over their weapons.

Quigley said the group was not taken hostage at any point.

Hiking trips 'not uncommon'

The rebel group was identified as the New People's Army, the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has waged an armed struggle pushing its cause since 1969.

Mount Pinatubo, a volcanic peak that erupted in 1991 after hundreds of years of being dormant, is in the northern Philippines. Quigley said it is not uncommon for U.S. sailors to hike the mountain when they come into port -- tours that the United States arranges with the Philippines government.

"This is a very popular activity for tourists to undertake, (to) climb up Mount Pinatubo and back down," he said. "There has never been an incident of this type before."