Filipinos living in Indonesia are in danger of being abducted by militant groups in order to pressure the Philippine government to release jailed Indonesian national Agus Dwirkana, who was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for possession of components of explosives.

He was arrested at the international airport on March 13.

"Some Indonesian groups are threatening to seize Filipinos in Indonesia to pressure the Phili-ppines to free Dwirkana," Gon-zales said in a radio interview.

"I appeal to them to spare innocent Filipinos living there in Indonesia," Gonzales added. He did not identify the groups.

"I have spoken with many officials in Indonesia and that's what they also told me, but our court has found him guilty. There's nothing we can do about it. We cannot just release him," he noted.

The Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) is now discussing what to do with convicted criminals such as Dwirkana, and whether to allow them to be deported or make them serve prison terms where they had been charged or arrested for violations of laws, said Gonzales.

Several Indonesian government officials have also appealed to President Gloria Arroyo to free Dwirkana, noted Gonzales.

He added that many supporters in Jakarta maintained that Dwirkana was innocent and not a member of any terror group.

Dwikarna reportedly told investigators that he was a member of several Indonesian militant groups and was fourth in command of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI), an umbrella group advocating imposition of strict Islamic law in Indonesia.

Dwikarna reportedly told authorities he was overall commander of a group called Laskar Jundullah and a chapter head of Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah (DDI), linked to the former ruling Golkar Party set up to coordinate Islamic missionary activities through preaching, while Laskar Jundallah advocates imposing Sharia law for Indonesia's Muslims who comprise 80 per cent of the population.

The police freed Dwirkana's compatriots who were arrested with him, Tamsil Linrung and Abdul Jamal Balfas, for lack of evidence.

Linrung, a former treasurer of Rais' National Mandate Party (PAN), has accused the police of planting the explosives in his luggage.

Dwirkana is the second Indonesian suspected terrorist jailed in the Philippines.

Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, a self-confessed bomb-maker for the Jemaah Islamiya, was sentenced to 10 years for illegal possession of explosives and use of falsified travel documents. He was arrested in Manila's Quiapo district on January 15.

This arrest led to the confiscation of one ton of anzomex primer, an explosive initiator, in General Santos on January 17. He said the explosives were supposed to be sent to various Asean countries.

Al Ghozi was also tagged as being behind a bloody bomb attack on a Manila railway system in 2000 that killed more than a 100 people.