ANGELO SAFE, WILL BE HOME SOON, LEBANESE NEGOTIATOR SAYS

By JOSE TORRES JR.
abs-cbnNEWS.com

Angelo de la Cruz is safe and may be home soon, a Lebanese businessman who claimed to have helped facilitate negotiations with the Iraqi kidnappers told abs-cbnNEWS.com Wednesday night.

“Any moment now he will be released. What time, we don’t know,” said Joseph Bechara, a Lebanese businessman who has been living in the Philippines for 25 years.

Bechara arrived in Manila on Tuesday after getting the assurance from his “contacts” that de la Cruz is safe and is about to be released.

“We have been successful. We got the promise that [de la Cruz] would not be touched, that he would not be harmed. For the release, it could be any moment now,” Bechara said.

Reports received by ABS-CBN earlier from unnamed "Filipino negotiators" said de la Cruz was in "safe hands" in Iraq.

The report came shortly after Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert said the government has began pulling its troops out of Iraq.

"The foreign ministry is coordinating the pullout of the humanitarian contingent with the ministry of defense," Albert said. "As of [Wednesday], our head count is down from 51 to 43," she added.

Vice President Noli de Castro said in a televised statement later Wednesday said the government "has spoken through the foreign office and negotiations are ongoing with the Iraqi [militants] with the help of other friends from the Middle East" who are mediating for de la Cruz's release.

Lebanese imam mediates for de la Cruz's release
 
Sheikh Maher Hammoud, imam of Al Quods mosque in Sidon, Lebanon, played an important role in the extension of the deadline set by de la Cruz's kidnappers last week, Bechara said.

He said Hammoud, one of the founders of the Lebanese Sunni movement, convinced the kidnappers to extend the deadline of de la Cruz’s scheduled execution.

Hammoud made contact with the Muslim Scholars Committee of Iraq three hours before de la Cruz's scheduled beheading last Saturday (early Sunday in Manila), Bechara said. The contact resulted to the extension of the kidnappers' deadline.

“We made contact with the militants three hours before the deadline [on Saturday],” Bechara said. “I was with Sheikh Maher when he talked with the militants. We got the extension right there and then,” he added.

“They talked about a lot of things. But [the militants’] only concern was for the Filipinos to pullout from [Iraq] and that they would be out before August 20,” Bechara said when asked what the kidnappers' demands were.

De la Cruz’s release was delayed because the kidnappers waited for an official statement from the Philippine government to withdraw its troops in Iraq.

No more risk of execution
 
An official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DOF) said early Wednesday that de la Cruz is “safe and there is no more risk of him being executed” after the government announced that it has started to withdraw Filipino troops in Iraq. The kidnappers have threatened to kill de la Cruz unless the government withdraws the dozens of peacekeepers it has in Iraq by July 20, one month ahead of schedule.

DOF Secretary Delia Albert on Wednesday said Filipino troops in Baghdad had fallen to 43 from 51. The Philippine Air Force also announced that it has put two transport planes on standby to begin an evacuation of troops if it is ordered.

Asked if this amounted to a withdrawal, a military spokesman, however, said no order to pull out had yet been received.

Statements by DOF officials, however, have been consistently vague since the deputy foreign secretary said Monday that Manila would pull out as soon as possible, but gave no date -- suggesting a deliberate policy.

Albert's deputy did not clarify whether Manila plans to pull out its troops by July 20. Officials in Manila have also declined to make clear if the troops would leave much earlier than their scheduled August 20 departure.

Withdrawal of troops questioned
 
Foreign governments, meanwhile, criticized the Philippines' alleged capitulation to kidnappers in Iraq.  

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer telephoned the Filipino ambassador to Australia saying that while he sympathized with Manila over its hostage crisis, giving in to the kidnappers would only strengthen their hand.

"He strongly urged the Philippines not to give into the demands of terrorists because we will all pay a price if they do," a spokesman for Downer told the Australian Associated Press news agency.

"If countries cave in to terrorists' demands then that only encourages the terrorists to become more strident and more aggressive toward other countries, as well as that country itself," Downer told reporters in his home town Adelaide.

Australia has some 800 military personnel in Iraq.

In Poland, which also has troops in Iraq, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "This move only encourages terrorists to increase such actions, since they bring about desired effects. It enforces their belief that such actions are worthwhile.

"The pullout by the Philippine government definitely increases danger for all other peace-keeping troops in Iraq. But I cannot say what Poland would do if we found ourselves in such an unfortunate situation," Boguslaw Majewski told Reuters.

The reports about Manila's plan to pull out its troops came after news a Bulgarian hostage in Iraq had been executed and another threatened with death.

Bulgaria said Wednesday it would not withdraw its 470 troops in Iraq despite the hostage crisis. With reports from Reuters