Negotiations resume to free hostages

PHILIPPINES: Negotiators are returning to the mountains on a southern island in the Philippines to try to free 57 people taken from a school by armed tribesmen, officials said on Friday.

Tribesmen took the hostages from an elementary school and nearby homes in Agusan del Sur province on the southern island of Mindanao on Thursday, less than three weeks after a massacre in a nearby province in which 57 people were killed.

The abductions and last month's massacre threw an unwelcome spotlight on the Southeast Asian nation and raised tensions ahead of presidential elections next year.

"I am going back to the mountains to convince the armed men to release their hostages unharmed," Josefina Bajade, a provincial social worker who heads of a team of negotiators, told reporters.

"We sent food to the hostages early today and we were assured they will not be touched. We're optimistic we can resolve this problem by today." Bajade said the armed men, who belong to an indigenous tribe called Manobos, have demanded that murder cases against them be dropped.

Soldiers and police officers have been sent to the mountains to limit the movements of the armed men and their captives, said Nestor Fajura, a regional police operations chief. MANILA, Friday, Reuters