There are good signals that the extension of the deadline has been given (for) another 48 hours. Through the efforts of our close friends and contacts who, like us, hope to resolve this matter with no loss of life, additional time has been obtained within which discussions can continue. We are thankful that (De la Cruz) remains alive and, as we understand it, will be treated under existing civilized rules. We shall endeavor, as best as we can and as circumstances permit, to keep the public informed of crucial developments.

by Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas*
where she was accompanying De la Cruz's wife and brother in Dubai

There are 10 Filipino drivers who have been stranded in Iraq for several days, unable to reach the border and cross back into Saudi Arabia due to the lack of Iraqi police escorts. We are concerned that they are running out of money and provisions.

by Telecoms Engineer Rashid Fabricante*
member of a crisis intervention group

In response to the demand by the group Khaled ibn al-Walid (Islamic army in Iraq), the Philippine government... will pull its humanitarian forces out of Iraq swiftly, in the time it takes to carry out the necessary preparation for their return to the Philippines. In the name of the Filipino people and the name of humanity and the family of de la Cruz and his eight children, the government of the Philippines is pleading for his release.

PHILIPPINE deputy foreign secretary Rafael Seguis*
as told with the Qatar-based Arabic television channel

The Philippine government deserves the harshest possible judgment from history. It deserves nothing but the disgust and condemnation of free people. Some new Dante is needed to write the sorry story of the Chamberlains, the Zapateros, and the Gloria Macapagal Arroyos, along with all the other besotted do-gooders who brought Peace to Our Time. But such may not emerge until some distant future when the Dark Ages of the Sharia rule that is sure to come to the Philippines and elsewhere begin to recede.

Jihadwatch.org