Hostage Standoff Continues

MANILA â€”  Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo promised Wednesday that she will make no deals with the Abu Sayyaf rebels who have kidnapped three Americans and claim to have beheaded one of them.

Military officials said they have found no evidence that hostage Guillermo Sobero of Corona was killed by the Islamic group, despite the assertion Tuesday of rebel leader Abu Sabaya that the businessman had been slain.

“We have reason to believe that the ‘beheading’ of Sobero [was] a bluff,� military spokesman Col. Danilo Servando said.

However, authorities said they had found the bodies of three Filipinos apparently killed by the rebels, including a Muslim cleric who was once the religious teacher of Khadaffy Janjalani, a top rebel leader.

The cleric, Ustadz Mohaymin Salih, had gone to the rebels’ camp to mediate. Instead, he was accused of being a government spy, tied to a tree and beheaded, said Joel Maturan, mayor of the town of Tipo-Tipo on the island of Basilan where the rebels are in hiding. Three other would-be negotiators escaped, Maturan said.

The rebels, traveling by high-speed motorboat and armed with rocket launchers, kidnapped the three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort on the island of Palawan on May 27. The rebels later kidnapped at least 15 other locals while fleeing from soldiers.

Nine hostages have escaped, but at least two have been killed by their captors.

The kidnappers are holding two Americans in addition to Sobero: Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., longtime missionaries in the Philippines.

The rebels say they are fighting to create a Muslim homeland in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country. But their primary activity appears to be kidnapping hostages and holding them for ransom.

Last year, the group staged a daring raid on the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan, kidnapping 21 people, including Westerners. The rebels exchanged some hostages for millions of dollars paid by Libya and used the money to help finance their operations.

President Arroyo, who had briefly agreed to a rebel demand to let a Malaysian diplomat act as a negotiator, returned to a tough stance Wednesday and promised a “long and bloody war� with the kidnappers.

“We will meet fire with fire, and more,� Arroyo said at a news briefing. “No ransom. No deal. No cease-fire. No suspension of the military operation.�

Thousands of soldiers are attempting to track down the rebels on Basilan, where they earlier escaped after a shootout at a hospital.

Arroyo called on local residents not to help the rebels and warned that “severe punishments� await those who do.

“Abu Sayyaf is a scourge to our race,� she said. “They are a curse to their religion. We will not stop the campaign until we have cleansed Basilan and Sulu [islands] of the Abu Sayyaf forces.�

After searching in vain for Sobero’s body Tuesday and Wednesday, some military officials expressed hope that Sabaya’s statement had been a lie.

“In the past, there have been bluffs and he did not carry out what he said he would do,� said Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, the chief military spokesman, at a news conference. “It is possible Mr. Sobero is still alive. We are hopeful that he is still alive.�