The Philippine government promised to leave Iraq almost immediately after this man’s kidnappers demanded that it do so. But now they are setting a deadline for the withdrawal as a condition for the man’s life.
I expect that Philippine officials will probably agree to this demand. After all, they’ve already established what the Philippine government is; now they’re just haggling over price.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarians are hanging tough.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A Filipino and two Bulgarians remain captive in Iraq after militants issued a fresh threat to kill the Filipino within 24 hours.
Angelo de la Cruz had appeared close to release the previous night, but his captors then denied they were freeing him and vowed to kill him on Sunday night unless Manila decided to pull its small troop contingent out of Iraq within 10 days.
“Yesterday was a false hope, he was not released but we are hoping he will soon be free,” said a Philippine embassy source in Baghdad. He said he had heard nothing since the kidnappers had extended their deadline to kill the 46-year-old driver.
Death threats still hung over two Bulgarian truck drivers, but Sofia said it was growing more confident they had survived a Friday night execution deadline set by their captors.
“Today we have more reasons than yesterday to believe that there has been no radical change in the situation of the Bulgarian hostages in Iraq,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gergana Grancharova told state radio.
“There are still many tense hours ahead. I do not want to leave the false impression of undue optimism,” she said.