Philippines kidnappers free some hostages

MANILA, Philippines, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Kidnappers in the southern Philippines released nine more hostages Friday, but retained 45 others in their standoff with police, officials said.

Seventy-five hostages, including children, were abducted Thursday in Prosperidad, Mindanao province's capital, CNN reported. Thirty hostages have been released.

Military and police security forces surrounded the building where the hostages were being held, preparing for a rescue mission if negotiations break down, the state-run Philippine News Agency said.

The kidnappers said Friday they would release the remaining hostages if they received assurances of immunity and if law enforcement and military personnel withdrew from the area, CNN said. The kidnappers also demanded the dismissal of murder charges and arrest warrants stemming from a long-standing rivalry with another clan, the news agency.

Mindanao Island, plagued for years by gang violence, and communist and Muslim separatist insurgencies, was in the news last month when 57 people were killed Nov. 23 in election-related violence at the other end of the island.

In the latest incident, GMA News reported the hostages were being held by the Ondo Perez gang in a mountainous area. It quoted authorities as saying gang members abducted the victims while fleeing from police. The gang members apparently are wanted for alleged crimes committed last February.

Hostage negotiator Josephine Bajade was quoted as telling a radio station: "So far so good ... We are hoping it (the hostage crisis) will end today."