ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Philippine government forces continue offensive operation against rebels despite demand of the militants, suspected of holding captive three westerners and a Filipino woman, to halt military action to open negotiation, the military said on Wednesday.
"And for us at the moment, until there is no suspension order, which may come from the commander of Westmincom (Western Mindanao Command) or from our Armed Forces Chief of Staff, our operation continues,"said Navy Capt. Roy Vincent Trinidad, assistant chief of the combined military forces Joint Task Force Zambasulta.
However, government said they would do everything necessary to ensure the safe and immediate release of the victims.
"Government's aim is to ensure their safety and secure their release and all actions emanate from this," Communications secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said on Wednesday but did not elaborate if the government would consider halting operations.
The video uploaded Monday to YouTube showed the gunmen surrounding captives Canadians John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50, and Norwegian resort owner Kjartan Sekkingstad, 56, Hall's girlfriend, Marites Flor.
The victims were kidnapped on Sept. 21 from the resort in Samal island off Davao City in southern Philippines.
As shown in the video, gunmen were fully armed with assault rifles and faces fully covered for concealment while forcibly directing the victims to make the appeal for the Philippine government to halt the operations.
Trinidad said they were also analyzing in the same video if those gunmen who were hiding their identities were really members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the date of the video taken.
The 400-strong ASG, founded in the early 1990s by Islamic extremists, is a violent Muslim terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines. The ASG is notorious for a series of kidnappings, bombings and even beheadings in southern Philippines over the past decades.
