Ces will be Released Soon

Two Philippine television journalists may be released within the next few hours by Islamic militants on a remote southern island, the country's police chief said on Tuesday. Ces Drilon, one of the Philippines' best-known TV reporters, would be released from captivity after her kidnappers scrapped a noon ransom deadline.

Members of the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group kidnapped Drilon, two cameramen and a professor acting as their guide on June 8 and demanded 15 million pesos ($338,000) for their release. And cameraman Angelo Valderama, was freed last week.

On Sunday, the military shelled rebel positions on Jolo but denied that the operation had anything to do with the kidnapping. In an interview with Reuters, the Philippines' military chief said the kidnapping had limited the army's operations against the Abu Sayyaf, which numbers only around 350 people but is the country's most deadly armed group. It is infamous for decapitating some of its kidnap victims.
The Abu Sayyaf, which relies on ransoms to fund its operations, has made Jolo a no-go area for foreigners.

Drilon's employer, ABS-CBN, the Philippines' largest television network, has repeatedly said it will not pay a ransom. Relatives of the captives have pleaded with the kidnappers, saying they do not have enough money to pay them.

In 2000, the group held about 20 people, mostly Western tourists and Malaysian resort workers from nearby Sipadan island, for about three months. They freed them only after more than $10 million was paid for their release. A year later, three Americans and more than a dozen Filipino tourists and resort workers were taken from the western island of Palawan. Two of the Americans were killed, including one who was beheaded, while most of the rest were freed for ransom.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the worst militant attack in the Philippines, the bombing of a ferry near Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

Since 2002, U.S. military forces have been helping train and advise local troops to fight the group, pouring about $500 million into combat equipment and development projects to help turn Muslim communities against the radicals.