MANILA/RIYADH, 11 November 2004 — The Philippines said yesterday it will pay no ransom to Iraqi militants who abducted a Filipino accountant from his Baghdad office last week.

Gilberto Asuque, a spokesman of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said negotiations to free Roberto Tarongoy had been left to his employer, Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co. (SATCCo), which had established direct contact with the kidnappers.

“The Philippine government has a no-ransom policy,” Asuque told reporters.

“What we want is for the negotiations to keep on moving. We can’t comment on the ransom demands. It is up to Satco to decide on the matter.”

Philippine officials said on Tuesday that the Iraqi militants had demanded ransoms of $10 million and $12 million for the Filipino and American respectively, but had issued no threat of execution or deadline.

In Riyadh, a SATTCo source said yesterday that key officials of the company have flown to Iraq to join their representatives who have earlier been sent there to negotiate with the kidnappers.

Filipino community leaders in the Kingdom who have been following the developments involving efforts to secure the release of Tarongoy said the company’s moves had been quite satisfactory.

“This is a great development and shows the SATCCo’s concern for their staff who had been held hostage,” said president Alex Veloso -Bello, chairman of the OFW Congress.

He said the involvement of the unnamed key officials is expected to expedite negotiations.

Tarongoy, 31, was taken at gunpoint from Satco’s offices on Nov. 1 along with an unidentified American, a Nepali and three Iraqis from their offices in Baghdad.

The Iraqis and the Nepalese have been released.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declined to comment on Tarongoy or on negotiations for the release of a Filipino diplomat taken hostage with two other United Nations workers by militants in Afghanistan.

“I am sorry but we have an information ban on those cases,” she told reporters at a briefing at Malaca?ang Palace yesterday.

Kidnappers of the three UN workers said yesterday the Kabul government had agreed to terms for their release, despite indications from Afghan and US officials that a compromise was impossible.

Washington has also urged Manila not to negotiate by itself with the kidnappers, but Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo the government wants to get in touch with the kidnappers to make sure the victims will not be harmed.

Manila is sending a senior diplomat to Baghdad to step up the government’s efforts to contact Tarongoy’s kidnappers and get first-hand confirmation on Iraqi militants’ demands.

The United States was dismayed by its close ally’s decision in July to pull out the small Philippine humanitarian force from Iraq to save the life of a kidnapped Filipino truck driver.

Some 6,000 Filipinos are believed to be working in Iraq, many in US military bases, despite a government ban on new worker deployments following the July kidnapping.