MANILA, April 19 (Reuters) - The Philippines has sent about 100 extra combat-trained police officers to a remote southern island to pressure Islamic militants to free a Red Cross worker held for over three months, officials said on Sunday. Talks between a group of Muslim preachers and rebels from the Abu Sayyaf continue alongside to secure the peaceful release of 62-year-old Italian engineer Eugenio Vagni, Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo, military spokesman, said on Sunday. Two other Red Cross captives -- Swiss national Andreas Notter and Filipina engineer Mary Jean Lacaba -- have been freed. Notter walked out of rebel captivity on Saturday while Lacaba was freed on April 2. Newspapers have said a ransom was paid for Lacaba. Fresh special police units were flown on Friday from the central Philippines to reinforce about 1,500 security forces trying to restrict the kidnappers' movement in the interior of Jolo island. They joined the hunt for the rebels at the weekend."We are applying pressure just enough to achieve our tactical and strategic ends," Arevalo told Reuters. "An assault to free the hostage is the last and final option. We're allowing negotiations to resolve this crisis peacefully." The government was worried over the health of the remaining hostage, who was believed to be suffering from hernia and needed urgent surgery, said Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno. "We are now very seriously pursuing the release of the last hostage," Puno said. "We are using both means of negotiations and with increased pressure on the kidnappers. We are noticing that they are moving around very activity, but with much difficulty now." Notter, Vagni and Lacaba, all officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross, were abducted by Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jan. 15 when they were on a field visit to a prison on Jolo, a guerrilla stronghold. (For a factbox on the Abu Sayyaf, click on [ID:nMAN463434]) The Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent militant group based on Jolo and nearby Basilan, had earlier demanded that troops relax the tight cordon they were keeping around the rebel hideout before talks for the hostages' release could start. The Abu Sayyaf, with links to the Southeast Asian regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah and to al Qaeda, has been blamed for the worst militant attack in the Philippines, the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that killed 100 people. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Sanjeev Miglani)
Anti-riot policemen block a theater artist members who protest outside the US Embassy in Manila April 1, 2009 to dramatize the sufferings and passion of the people as the predominantly Catholic ...
