ABS-CBN admits kidnap of Ces Drilon, vows no ransom payout

June 11, 2008

Following a day of an appeal for a news blackout and another day of the ABS-CBN network official line of its news team going missing, the giant network admitted belatedly that Ces Oreña-Drilon and her two crew members, Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, have been abducted. The official statement did not point to the Abu Sayyaf as the TV team’s abductors, although it stated that the network will abide by its policy not to pay for ransom “as this would embolden kidnap for ransom groups to abduct other journalists.

The announcement of ABS-CBN network, Tribune’s military intelligence sources pointed out, signals that negotiations between the network and the Abu Sayaff Group (ASG) are now ongoing in earnest.

The sources explained that if negotiations have not started, such an announcement of a “no ransom policy” would be fanning danger, and thus place the kidnap victims in harm’s way, since this stand results in the kidnap gang taking a more hardline position.