A leader of a notorious kidnap-for-ransom group operating in southern Philippines confirmed yesterday that negotiations are ongoing for the release of Edwin Lim, a Filipino interpreter who was abducted several weeks ago along with his co-worker, a Chinese national in North Cotabato province, radio reports reaching Manila said yesterday.

A report from ABS-CBN said Commander Muhammad Faisal confirmed that his group was holding Lim and Zhang Zhong Yee hostage. Zhang is an engineer for a Chinese company working on a Japanese government-funded irrigation project in North Cotabato when he was abducted by Faisal's "Pentagon" group.

Reports say the kidnappers had demanded a $4 million ransom for Zhang, while the amount is still undetermined for Lim. Lim and three other Chinese nationals were supposed to negotiate for the release of Zhang when they met with the kidnappers on August 13, in the town of Colambio, in North Cotabato's adjacent Sultan Kudarat province. However, instead of releasing Zhang, the gunmen took the negotiators as captives. The military during a "chance encounter", on Sunday was able to rescue one of the five hostages while the kidnappers hastily executed two of their victims.

The deaths of the two kidnap victims Xue Xin and Zhang Zhongqiang, a brother of the engineer, has elicited a demand from the Chinese government for Manila to explain the incident. Meanwhile, Vina, Lim's wife had appealed to the kidnappers to release her husband. "We do not have money to pay for ransom. My husband is just an interpreter working for the Chinese engineers," she said in Filipino.

Vina made the appeal amidst the kidnap group's threat to behead Lim and Zhang, if their demands of the payments of ransom are not met. She also denied reports alleged by the group that they are wealthy, as most ethnic Chinese in the province are commonly considered, adding that they welcomed her husband's appointment as an interpreter of the Chinese nationals only because he had been jobless for two years.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva yesterday said they have information that the Pentagon group are not plain criminals and could be getting support even from the separatist Abu Sayyaf rebels.