23 July 2000 - AFP

JOLO (Philippines) -- Cash-rich Abu Sayyaf gunmen are stocking up on weapons ahead of a possible government crackdown, using the ransoms for 10 freed hostages out of dozens held in the southern Philippines jungle, intelligence sources said on Saturday.

They said the self-styled Muslim independence fighters are driving up the black market price of assault rifles on Jolo island after they netted an estimated US$4 million from the kidnapping of tourists and resort workers in the Malaysian island of Sipadan.

Abu Sayyaf leaders have "put out the word" that they are in the market for weapons as they assume the military and the police will go after them when the last of their remaining 31 hostages are freed, said the sources, who asked not to be named.

Philippine police chief Panfilo Lacson vowed last week that "we will not let them get away with what they have done", and would just "wait until the hostage crisis is over" before making a move.

Police say there are two million unlicensed firearms in Jolo and nearby islands, a mainly depressed Muslim region in the south-western tip of the Philippine archipelago.

The sources said the price of M-16 rifles, standard issue for the Philippine military, have nearly doubled to 45,000 pesos (US$1,011) from 28,000 pesos before the April 23 Sipadan raid.

Machine guns and M-203 rifles which can also fire rocket-propelled grenades are also in great demand.

Two Abu Sayyaf factions freed four Malaysians and two Filipino teachers on Friday plus a Filipino boy on Thursday. German teacher Renate Wallert was released last Monday, while two other Malaysians walked free earlier.

No government has admitted to paying ransoms, although Filipino officials later said it was possible that other parties might have supplied the cash.

After Mrs Wallert's release, the Abu Sayyaf bought 2,000 envelopes, the sources said, which would serve as "payroll" envelopes for a large number of guns for hire who helped guard the hostages.

Philippine President Joseph Estrada's chief aide, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora stressed on Saturday that the government "will not attack the Abu Sayyaf camps".

"We place a premium on the safety of the hostages, and after this, whatever happens, let us try to correct that," he said in a statement.

Chief hostage negotiator Roberto Aventajado said on Saturday that Manila would focus its efforts on freeing three Malaysian men and three western women.

The three Malaysians "may be freed in the next few days", he said. Sources close to the negotiations said one gunman held on to the trio in a quarrel over ransom.

After the Malaysians, the government would try to free all the remaining women from Sipadan -- Filipina Lucrecia Dablo, Frenchwoman Sonia Wendling, Marie Moarbes of Lebanon and South African Monique Strydom -- Mr Aventajado said.

He gave no timetable, but sources close to the negotiations said the Malaysians could be freed this weekend.

The Abu Sayyaf still holds Mrs Wallert's husband Werner and son Marc, Ms Wendling's boyfriend Stephane Loisy, Finns Mirco Jahanen Rista and Johan Franti Seppo, Mrs Strydom's husband Carel and a Filipino, Roland Ullah.

A three-member French television crew including a woman, and a German journalist covering the crisis here, were also kidnapped, as were 13 Filipino Christian preachers who had visited Andang's hideout.

Intelligence sources said the gunmen plan to hold onto the preachers and use them as human shields when the hostage crisis winds down. -- AFP

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