MANILA, 27 January 2007 — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said it has asked Nigerian officials to call off attempts to rescue the 24 Filipino seamen kidnapped from a ship last week.

Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said that while the Philippines was grateful of the Nigerian government’s rescue efforts, such an option could further endanger the lives of the hostages.

“Military operation is not an option,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said. “We want to put our Filipino seafarers out of harm’s way so we appealed to the Nigerian government to forego any operation.”

Conejos said the DFA was not suggesting payment ransom. “If there are ways to resolve this peacefully, we want to exhaust them,” he said.

Nigerian officials have said the hostages, all crew members of a German-operated cargo ship, were seized by members of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) last week as they headed for the oil port of Warri.

MEND is an armed group of minorities fighting against alleged exploitation and oppression of their natural resources and for an equal share of the profits made by foreign companies operating in their oil-producing homeland.

Conejos said, however, that Philippine officials in Nigeria could not confirm which group is holding the Filipino hostages. He said he was not aware if there had been any demands set for the release of the Filipinos.

Nigeria is one of the biggest employers of Filipino workers in Africa, with some 3,900 Filipinos employed there at the end of 2006.

But because of the latest kidnapping, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a temporary suspension of the deployment of Filipino workers to the West African country.

It was the fourth kidnapping of Filipinos in Nigeria in months.

A Filipino oil worker was held captive along with several foreign co-workers in February 2006, two in June and three in August.

In 2004, Arroyo ordered a similar halt to deployment of Filipino workers to war-torn Iraq after a Filipino truck driver was abducted.

The deployment ban remains in effect up to now. The hostage was freed unharmed after the Philippine government withdrew Filipino troops from Iraq, where they had joined a US-led peacekeeping mission. (With input from Agencies)