Officials won't pay ransom to teachers' kidnappers

Jolo/Zamboanga: Local government officials have insisted that the government has no plans to pay the ransom demands of the kidnappers of three teachers in southern Philippines Zamboanga.

Zamboanga city government will never give in to the demands of the kidnappers holding captive three teachers from Landang Gua, but efforts will be exerted to ensure the victims' safe release, Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat said.

"The national government has that policy and we in Zamboanga will continue to stick with it," he said.

The local government has never caved in to ransom demands of kidnappers in previous abduction cases in Zamboanga, Lobregat said.

The kidnappers have demanded Peso 6 million (Dh470,000) for the release of the three teachers, Janette de los Reyes, Quizon Freires and Raphael Mayonada, Lobregat said.

"But they come from poor families who are dependent on the salaries of the teachers for their subsistence," said Lobregat.

Meanwhile, in a related incident, the three aid workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross, held in Jolo for almost two weeks, will not be released because of ransom payments, said Senator Richard Gordon, also head of the Philippine National Red Cross.

"We call for their immediate and unconditional release. The Red Cross has been around for 150 years. Some members had been kidnapped, some killed in the line of duty. But we never paid ransom for them," said Gordon.

"We have no direct contact with them [the kidnappers]," Gordon said.