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Thursday, November 11, 2004
RP rules out negotiations with Pinoy abductors in Iraq
MANILA -- A top Philippine diplomat headed for Iraq on Wednesday to bolster efforts to free a Filipino hostage, but ruled out negotiations with the kidnappers.
Accountant Robert Tarongoy was abducted Nov. 1 along with an unidentified American, a Nepalese and three Iraqis from the Baghdad compound of a Saudi-based company that caters food to US troops.
Two of the Iraqi hostages and the Nepalese have been freed.
Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis left Manila late Tuesday to join a team of Filipino diplomats overseeing the hostage situation in Baghdad.
"It's our policy not to negotiate with abductors...but we'll have an interaction with the employer," he told ABS-CBN television.
Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas on Tuesday said Tarongoy's kidnappers have contacted his Saudi employer and listed their demands.
She declined to say what they were, but added that negotiations between the company and the abductors were under way.
Two Philippine officials dealing with the crisis said the kidnappers were demanding US$12 million and the release of at least four prisoners from Abu Ghraib, the prison where US military guards were photographed beating and sexually humiliating Iraqi detainees.
Seguis said he was aware of the reported demands and would try to confirm them in Iraq.
A foreign affairs spokesman, Gilbert Asuque, said the Philippines has a policy of not paying ransom, but added without elaborating that it was leaving the hostage negotiations in the hands of Tarongoy's employer.
US officials have asked the Philippine government not to grant any concessions to the kidnappers.
Washington strongly criticized President Arroyo's decision in July to withdraw a small peacekeeping team from Iraq early to secure the release of kidnapped Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz.
Philippine diplomats were also monitoring efforts to secure the freedom of another Filipino hostage, Angelito Nayan, abducted Oct. 28 with two other UN election workers in Afghanistan.
The kidnappers are demanding the release of jailed Taliban prisoners.
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage indicated on Wednesday that Washington would reject the kidnappers' demand. (AP)
(November 11, 2004 issue)
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Italian worker released; no ransom paid