Philippines | Muslim militants threaten to kill more hostages

Former Italian missionary Rolando Del Torchio waits for medical treatment at the Trauma Center Zamboanga city hours after his release from suspected Abu Sayyaf kidnappers in Jolo

Muslim militants have threatened to kill three more hostages in their jungle base in the southern Philippines more than a week after beheading a Canadian man when their multi-million dollar ransom demands were not met.
In a video circulated this week by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites, the captives from Canada, Norway and the Philippines pleaded for the Canadian and Philippine governments to heed the Abu Sayyaf militants’ demand.
Six heavily armed Abu Sayyaf fighters stood behind the hostages, who were made to sit in a clearing and spoke briefly before a camera. A black flag hang in the backdrop of banana trees and lush foliage.
Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad said that if the kidnappers’ demand was not met, “we will be executed like our friend John.”
The militants beheaded John Ridsdel on April 25 in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, an impoverished Muslim province in the south of the largely Roman Catholic country, after they failed to get a ransom of 300 million pesos (USD6.3 million).
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the killing but vowed not to give in to the kidnappers’ ransom demands. Following the beheading, the Philippine military launched an offensive, which security officials believe have killed more than a dozen gunmen so far.
Canadian captive Robert Hall asked the Philippine government to “please stop shooting at us and trying to kill us. They’re gonna do a good job at that.” He asked his government to heed the militants’ demand.
Holding back tears, Filipino Marites Flor asked several officials and prominent Philippine personalities, including local presidential candidates, for help “because we want to be freed alive.”
A masked militant warned Canada and the Philippines that the three remaining hostages would be killed “if you procrastinate once again.”
It was the first time, the three captives were shown in a video after Ridsdel’s killing.
The four were seized from a marina on southern Samal Island and taken by boat to Sulu, where Abu Sayyaf gunmen continue to hold several captives, including a Dutch bird watcher who was kidnapped more than three years ago, and eight Indonesian and Malaysian crewmen who were snatched recently from three tugboats.
The militants freed 10 Indonesian tugboat crewmen a few days ago reportedly in exchange for ransom.
The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf for kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and bombings. The brutal group emerged in the early 1990s as an extremist offshoot of a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion in the south. Jim Gomez, Manila, AP

presidential favorite duterte ‘all-inclusive’ remark stirs debate

A Philippine senator expressed alarm over a presidential frontrunner’s plan to allow communist guerrillas to play a political role in the government if he wins, saying this would cause rumblings within the military.
In his latest controversial remark, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte told reporters his administration would be an all-inclusive one in which communist guerrillas could take part in decision-making. He had earlier expressed openness to a coalition with revolutionary forces but later clarified that an all-inclusive government might be better so as not to antagonize the military and police.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a former navy officer, told reporters the military, which has a history of failed coup attempts, could get restive if Duterte wins the presidential race and considers giving political concessions to the rebels.
“There is a faction in the military that is averse to any form of power-sharing with the communists that Duterte is proposing,” said the senator, who was among the leaders of a failed mutiny in 2003. “It’s going to be very easy to recruit people for such military interventions.”