Dozens of children kidnapped in Philippines

It is the latest in a terrifying outburst of crimes for the Mindanao region in the last few weeks after a logging company worker was behedded on Wednesday and a political massacre left 57 people dead. Some of the kidnappers were facing criminal charges, including murder and were demanding their charges be dropped, local police said. Fifteen armed members of the Manobo tribe descended on the New Maasim Elementary School in Agusan del Sur province while children were at a morning flag ceremony, local police said. People living nearby were also abducted, including two logging company employees. Two school teachers escaped as the hostages were marched off to a forest. A woman social worker negotiated with the tribespeople and eventually got the gunmen to free all 17 students and the school principal. But that left 55 people, all adults, still in captivity. The children arrived with the principal tired and hungry at the Prosperidad town hall by mid-afternoon and were served meals after their eight-hour ordeal, Agence France Presse reported.

Today, negotiations are expected to restart for the others still being held.The kidnappers were led by Ondo Perez, a local tribal leader, police said, who had issued a raft of demands including the arrest of a local rival who he accused of being behind the murders of another member of the Perez family. They are also demanding pre-existing criminal charges be dropped."They want the government to lift all arrest warrants against them,” a police spokesperson said. “Police have been looking for them for a long time. We were supposed to serve warrants today, that's why they kidnapped those people."

The Mindanao region is an extremely volatile part of the south-east Asian group of islands that makes up the southern third of the country. Yesterday Philippine lawyers took part in a heated debate  over President Gloria Arroyo's controversial martial law to quell an alleged rebellion by a powerful clan accused of a political massacre. Opposition members moved to overturn what they said was the "unconstitutional" imposition of military rule in the southern province of Maguindanao. Critics voiced fears that she may expand martial law to cover the whole country in a drive to prolong her six-year term after next year.The president last week put Maguindanao under military control for up to 60 days after members of the powerful Ampatuan clan allegedly threatened to attack if its leaders were arrested for the November massacre.Since martial law was imposed, more than 60 people have been rounded up, including five clan leaders who have since been charged with rebellion.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children