Muslim leaders appeal for Tarongoy's freedom
Mindanews / 8 November 2004

DAVAO CITY -- Muslim leaders have issued an appeal to the captors of Roberto Tarongoy, an overseas Filipino worker abducted in Iraq, to free him in accordance "with the spirit and unity of the Ramadan season."

"The last days of the Ramadan is the time to pardon all those who sinned," Ustadz Mahmod Adilao, regional chair of the Ulama League of the Philippines in Davao City said during a press conference at the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo) conference room yesterday afternoon.

Adilao read the appeal before reporters in both Filipino and Arabic.

The Davao-born Tarongoy was abducted along with a Nepalese national in an attack last November 1 at the SATCo compound where he worked.

Al-Jazeera television has said its earlier report that he has been released was not accurate.

Adilao's letter appealed to Tarongoy's abductors "who have grievances against the Philippines" not to involve him "because we all know he is innocent."

"That no burdened person (with sins) shall bear the burden of another," he said quoting verse 53:38 from the Holy Qu-ran, the holy book of the Muslims.

"This verse is our basis for all the Muslims in the world to understand not to include the innocent," he said.

The letter of appeal will be sent to Elias Macarandas, Philippine representative to the Muslim World League, of which the Ulama League is a member.

Adilao said the letter will also be published in Arabic in the Al Alamiya newspaper in Saudi Arabia so that Tarongoy's captors may be able to read it.

He was hopeful the abductors would listen to the appeal just as the captors of Angelo dela Cruz listened when the Ulama League of the Philippines asked for his release. "In the religion of Islam, the request of our brother Muslims should not be denied."

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has also appealed to Muslims around the world to help the government secure the release of Tarongoy and United Nations volunteer Angelito Nayan, a Filipino held hostage in Afghanistan along with an Irish and a Kosovan.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo was also seen over Al-Jazeera television reminding the hostage-takers that the Philippine government has imposed a ban on sending OFWs to Iraq.