ZAMBOANGA CITY -- About 7,000 people have been displaced by the ongoing hostage crisis in Sulu province involving two Red Cross workers, a government monitoring agency reported.

This developed as provincial authorities said the state of emergency in Sulu stays until the two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aid workers -- Swiss Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni -- are released and their kidnappers are arrested.

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Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnapped Notter and Vagni, along with Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, last January 15 while visiting a humanitarian project in a Jolo jail. Lacaba was released by the Jolo-based bandits last April 2.

Sulu Area Coordinating Center (ACC) reported to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) that a total of 1,568 families comprising of 7,658 persons are staying at evacuation centers as of April 10.

They came from eight villages near the kidnappers' lair in Indanan town, where the two aid workers are being held captive.

The ACC reported that of the 1,568 displaced families, 1,456 are staying with their relatives and friends in safer areas in Sulu province.

The remaining evacuees, numbering to 130 families comprising of 607 individuals, are housed in three elementary schools in Indanan town that were converted into evacuation centers, according to the report.

The evacuees fled their homes for fear that they might be caught in the crossfire between the government security forces and Abu Sayyaf bandits.

Thousands of soldiers and policemen backed by the Provincial Government's Civilian Emergency Forces have surrounded the bandits' lair in Indanan town to prevent them from transferring the hostages to another place.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Sulu Provincial Government, and three non-government organizations have provided relief assistance to the evacuees.

State of emergency

Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo, Sulu-based military spokesman, said the government-declared state of emergency stays until the hostage crisis in Sulu province is resolved.

"It's only good up to the solution of the crisis. If the Abu Sayyaf Group will be apprehended and they we will be able to release the hostages safely, then it will mean the lifting of the state of emergency in a nutshell," Arevalo said.

Arevalo said the military has been holding dialogues with the Sulu residents since the declaration of the state of emergency, and more municipalities have supported the measure aimed at restoring order in the province.

"It is also in their hands how this will be solved. That is what we've been telling them. The solution of this problem also lies in them," he said, referring to the assistance of the residents.

During the dialogues, the military official said the residents initially expressed apprehension of the state of emergency, but these fears subsided when the military explained to them the real purpose of the declaration.

"After we have explained to them that the state of emergency is not for them and it is actually to help them, they've supported the state of emergency…," Arevalo said.

Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan declared a state of emergency in Jolo last month after Abu Sayyaf gunmen threatened to behead the three kidnapped Red Cross workers.

Release

Arevalo expressed hopes that the Abu Sayyaf would free the two remaining hostages unconditionally.

"If they released Lacaba unconditionally, without ransom, then we are hopeful that there can be another one or two Lacabas," he said.

Arevalo said it was difficult to put a timeline when the military will allow the crisis to drag on because the situation on the ground is fluid.

"But if you are going to ask us, if you are going to ask the crisis committee, we would want to end this soon and most pacific means. When we say pacific means, we want the hostages, the kidnap victims, released unconditionally. There is no harm in trying to secure their release through peaceful means," he said. (Bong Garcia/VR/Sunnex)