The Philippines cautioned the Swiss and Italian governments on Monday against paying ransom to seek the release of their nationals who were abducted last week in Mindanao. A spokesperson of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assured the two foreign governments that the Philippines will maintain its no-ransom policy in this latest abduction. “We will definitely appeal to them (foreign governments) to cooperate and to coordinate with our officials here in the land because we know better how to deal with the abductors,” Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said. She likewise assured that the authorities are doing everything possible to secure the safe release of the three kidnap victims – Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni, and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, all workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The three were abducted last week by gunmen believed to belong to the Abu Sayyaf Group in Sulu province while they were on their way to the airport after visiting the Sulu provincial jail. Fajardo also called on the media and other concerned groups to respect the news blackout imposed by the Philippine military on the kidnapping “to avoid compromising the ongoing rescue mission.” Meanwhile, Senator Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine National Red Cross, said he was able to talk by telephone to the three hostages early on Monday. He said they told him that their kidnappers are demanding for a stop to military pursuit operations. “They (hostages) called up this morning and said they are okay. They said their abductors want the military to call off the pursuit operations,” Gordon said in a radio interview. Meanwhile, a peace deal between the Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim group is highly unlikely this year, a negotiator for the rebels and a regional security analyst said on Monday. But they believed that fighting in the Muslim south of the mainly Roman Catholic state would not escalate, as the global economic downturn exacerbates both sides' logistical problems. “There's no serious analysis needed to say that we will not be able to sign anything,” Michael Mastura, a member of the peace negotiating panel of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said.
