More Philippines hostages released

Ten people who were among scores of villagers taken hostage from a school in the southern Philippines have been released by their armed captors.
Nine women and a boy were freed on Friday, a day after more than 70 school children, teachers and villagers were seized on the southern island of Mindanao by armed men demanding that murder and banditry charges against them be dropped.
"I have with me right now, nine women and one boy," Josefina Bajade, a provincial social worker heading a team of negotiators, said. "There are still 47 hostages inside.
"We sent food to the hostages early today and we were assured they will not be touched."
Government negotiators travelled to Mindanao on Friday to try to secure the release of the remaining villagers from the armed hostage-takers, believed to be former members of a militia known as the "Perez group".
Seventeen children and an elderly woman were released hours after the initial kidnapping.

Clan wars
Negotiations resumed early on Friday in three remote hilltop huts in the southern Philippine hinterland, surrounded by hundreds of security forces.
Jaime Milla, a police chief, said the hostage-takers in the Agusan del Sur province were former militiamen who had been dismissed and turned to banditry and extortion, targeting mining and logging companies in the area.
Two brothers among the armed group were wanted for murder.
One of them, Joebert Perez, told reporters on Friday that the charges against him were fabricated, and he blamed a rival clan for the killings.
Local authorities said the abductions were linked to clan wars among the local indigenous tribes.
"In my analysis ... the hostage-taking was only for making human shields," Santiago Cane, the provincial vice-governor, said. "They want the standing warrant of arrest issued against them revoked."
Clan wars, known locally as "rido", are common in communities in southern Philippines.








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