Former Ms. Universe Margie Moran Floirendo has appealed for the release of two aid workers kidnapped September 15 in Basilan province by a still unidentified armed group.

Floirendo made a special appeal for the release of Millet Mendoza, a Manila-based community development worker, whom she met through her socio-civic work in the south through two non-government organizations, Tabang Mindanao and Assisi Foundation.

Mendoza and Esperancita Hipida, program officer of Nagdilaab Foundation, Inc., were abducted last Monday in barangay Cabangalan, Tipo-Tipo municipality on Basilan island.

Floirendo said she met Mendoza when she was a member of Tabang Mindanao. They extended assistance to the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, the Lumads, who were then suffering from hunger which gripped upland areas of the south. 

She said Mendoza is a dedicated aid worker who does not mind the dangers of working in Basilan.
 
"Sana naman i-release nyo na lang siya at ang kanyang kasama. There's nothing wrong with what they do," Floirendo said.

Maria Margarita Moran, then a 19-year old student and part-time model, won the Ms. Universe beauty pageant in 1973.

She was later married a wealthy Mindanao landowner-businessman, former Congressman Antonio 'Tony Boy' Floirendo, and settled in Davao.

Inter-Religious appeal

Meanwhile, the Inter-Religious Solidarity Movement for Peace (IRSMP) based in Zamboanga City, condemned "this unwarranted and violent abduction of the defenseless and innocent women."

"The fact that they were forcibly taken while doing their personal vocation and official duties and mission to help underprivileged and neglected residents of Tipo-Tipo Municipality, as they have been doing for others in the other towns of Basilan for the past many years, makes their abduction a very regrettable act of disservice not only to them and their organizations but more so to the poor residents of Basilan that they serve," the IRSMP said in a statement issued Wednesday.

"They deserve to be treated with the same compassion and moral decency by those who come into contact with them, but especially those who they serve whether directly and indirectly," the IRSMP added.

The IRSMP leaders who issued the statement were: Fr. Angel C. Calvo, IRSMP's Catholic convenor; Prof. Ali T. Yacub, IRSMP's Muslim convenor; Pastor Ronald Bilang, IRSMP's Evangelical convenor.

The group called on the captors to release the two women, especially since the current "Holy Month of Ramadan is a time when the believers of Islam are called upon to exert and practice special effort to achieve personal spiritual purity and generosity towards others."  

"By this sacred, religious spirit and model of personal and social conduct demanded by the Most Merciful and Compassionate Allah specially during the Holy Month of Ramadan, we implore and ask the kidnappers to immediately release Mesdames Hupida and Mendoza," the IRSMP said. 

The gunmen who took the aid workers had stopped a convoy on Basilan island and took five people hostage but later freed three of them.

Rebels or bandits?

The vehicles were transporting mostly NGO, social and health workers, who came from a meeting with local officials in the town of Tipo-tipo, to discuss rehabilitation programs for the municipality.

At least 12 people were on board the vehicles, but most of them managed to flee or were eventually freed.

Calvo said he has yet to receive word from the abductors nor the captives.

Calvo refused to link the suspects to any particular armed group operating in Basilan.

Calvo also thanked Christian and Muslim peace advocacy groups, who have expressed willingness to help free Hupida and Mendoza, two women known for their active role in peace building and conflict resolution in Mindanao.

Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a navy spokesman, said there were a number of Muslim rebel groups that operate in area where the kidnapping took place.

The small but violent Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf and the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), are both active in the area. Bandits and guns for hire are also rife in the area.

About 250 people have been killed in the fighting since last month, threatening peace talks to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has stunted growth in Mindanao. -- reports from RODIREY SALAS, ABS-CBN News Davao; DAVID SANTOS, ABS-CBN News Zamboanga; MANNY MOGATO, Reuters