The head of the Philippine Red Cross sought assurances from Moro militants on Wednesday about the safety of three kidnapped Red Cross employees, a day after a rebel deadline to behead one of the captives expired. The Abu Sayyaf rebel group had demanded the withdrawal of troops from the remote Jolo island and threatened to kill one of the hostages if the demand was not met by 2 P. M. Tuesday. Two of the hostages are Europeans. “I want to talk to the three, it's confidence building again,” Senator Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine chapter of the Red Cross, said in a radio interview. Gordon said he had received two text messages from the rebels asking why troops had not been withdrawn as they demanded, but there was no word on the fate of the hostages. Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, Swiss national Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni, all staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have been held in the jungles of Jolo since Jan. 15. They were abducted after a visit to a local prison where the Red Cross is funding a water project. On Tuesday, Manila imposed a state of emergency on Jolo allowing security forces to set up checkpoints and giving them wide powers to detain and search suspects.
