As governments and families begin preparing to pay ransom demands to Muslim rebels holding 21 mostly foreign nationals on the island of Jolo, President Mr Joseph Estrada of the Philippines appeared to back away from a policy of military confrontation and to seek a negotiated settlement.
Pressure on President Estrada not to risk the lives of the hostages has been growing steadily, and yesterday Mr Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy representative, arrived in Manila to impress upon the government Europe's growing alarm over the safety of the hostages seized on a Malaysian tourist island 16 days ago.
Malaysia, with nine nationals among the international hostages, yesterday became the first country openly to support every option to secure their release, including the payment of ransom money. "We'll look at every option available, but we will not discuss those until we have seen what is the demand of the kidnappers," the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Mr Syed Hamid Albar, told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The television news in Manila reported last night that the family of one of the European hostages was ready to make a payment to the kidnappers, whose original demands reportedly ranged up to a total ransom of $3 million.
The Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword) rebels, who seized the hostages from a Malaysian holiday island on Easter Sunday, freed a Filipino bank teller they abducted three months ago after receiving a ransom for his release, or what his wife described, using a local euphemism, as payment for his "board and lodging". President Estrada, who has gone to the southern Philippines to deal with a growing Muslim insurgency which has become the biggest challenge to his presidency, told reporters that "as a policy, the Republic of the Philippines government does not pay ransom to kidnappers".
He acknowledged the foreign pressure, adding: "However, since the hostages are mainly foreign nationals, they would also have to take into account their concerns."
The Philippines President then went on to make an offer of his own, stating, without giving details: "We're, of course, prepared to consider community development projects in the area."
The guerrillas are considering releasing a German woman in the group, Ms Renate Wallert, whose health has deteriorated, a Philippines government negotiator said yesterday. The hostages - nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns and two Filipinos - have all been suffering from stress and various ailments since being abducted on April 23rd from a Malaysian diving resort and taken to Jolo, a rebel stronghold 960 km south of Manila.
A Filipino doctor allowed to examine them said yesterday none of them was in grave medical condition but the German woman was very weak.
Dr Huda Lim said she saw the hostages, held in a jungle hideout surrounded by troops with whom the guerillas occasionally exchange fire, at the weekend.
She said the captors turned down her appeal for the release of Ms Wallert on humanitarian grounds. "They talked among themselves and then said it was not possible. I did not insist any more."
Ms Wallert's husband and son, who are also hostages, told her she had suffered two strokes but that she thought she "probably had collapsed because she was not eating".
Manila's ABS-CBN New Channel showed television pictures of the hostages looking frightened and haggard, with Ms Wallert lying on a makeshift hammock as other hostages tried to get her to drink.
"Please, please, let the press take her out, please," a Lebanese hostage, Ms Marie Moarbes, said on camera. "If they don't allow you, please send us the Red Cross, please. They won't shoot on the Red Cross . . . She can't take it any more."
Meanwhile, 14 soldiers were killed in the last two days in clashes with rebels in the southern Philippines. Philippines television showed the bodies of three soldiers beheaded and others covered in giant palm leaves after an ambush on a military patrol.
Another rebel organisation, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), continued a series of daylight actions yesterday, raiding the town of Alamada on Mindanao, the second-largest of the Philippine islands where some Muslim insurgents are fighting for a separate Islamic state.
About 70 guerrillas beat people inside a Catholic church before fleeing, officials said. The raid came shortly after a 48-hour unilateral ceasefire declared by MILF expired.
At least 42 soldiers and more than 100 MILF and Abu Sayyaf have died in fighting over the past two weeks, military reports said. Eighteen soldiers missing in action are believed to have been captured by the MILF.