Filipinos Free 6 Californians, 7 Other Hostages

Kidnappers on Sunday released 13 hostages, including six Californians, in exchange for promises of new homes, a school and a cemetery.

The hostages were released in the town of Lake Sebu, a remote area 640 miles southeast of Manila, where they were kidnapped Wednesday by 20 armed men during a picnic in the Traan-Kine Spring Resort.

The kidnappers demanded $57,000 ransom, which was raised by the hostages’ friends and relatives but never paid, authorities said.

Instead, Mayor Rosalita Nunez of General Santos, 30 miles east of Lake Sebu, said she promised them new homes for Muslims, a state-funded Muslim school and a cemetery exclusively for Muslims in General Santos.

Police and military officials say the kidnappers are members of Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group blamed for a string of kidnappings, robberies and armed attacks on Mindanao, the main southern Philippine island.

But speaking in Washington, a Clinton administration official said the kidnappers may have been common criminals not allied with a militant Muslim group.

The hostages included Noel San Gabriel, his wife Gloria, 10-year-old daughter Arlene and 5-year-old son Chrys, all of Los Angeles, and Helen and Noel Roque, also of California. The Roques’ place of residence was not immediately known.

All six are Philippine-born American citizens who were visiting relatives for Christmas.