Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Saturday the government is now exerting more pressure on the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) for them to release the last International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker who remains in their hands even as he announced the rescue of another hostage, Swiss national Andreas Notter.

Puno said Notter's rescue was the result "of very intense operations by combined forces of the Armed Forces, the police, and the police auxiliaries of Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan."

"As you know we came here earlier and had a few meetings at which time we reported that there were discussions being conducted by emissaries of Gov. Tan and some Ulamas that we have requested for assistance in negotiating (with the kidnapers)," Puno said.

However, Puno said the negotiations between the Ulamas and kidnappers were stalled because of loss of communication. "So nothing happened between two days ago until yesterday (Friday)," he said.

"Although the Ulamas are still trying to be in touch with the kidnappers for the past couple of days, it was decided that the repositioning of government forces was going to be undertaken. So forces were repositioned and as of the night before yesterday the kidnappers were within a very close distance from our forces," Puno said.

He revealed that troops are within 500 meters of the bandits and that the latter are surrounded by a cordon put up by the PNP and police auxiliaries.

He said the kidnapers have moved to a different place and are being pursued by military and police elements. On Saturday morning, the fleeing bandits were spotted by police auxiliaries who then chased them.

According to Puno, the bandits left behind the Swiss national because they were not able to drag him with them anymore.

"So we are fortunate that this incident ended without injuries to Mr. Notter," Puno said.

The DILG secretary said while they are happy with the rescue of Notter, the government is "now very seriously pursuing the release of the last hostage, Italian Eugenio Vagni."

As this developed, a Roman Catholic prelate welcomed Saturday the news that Notter is already free from the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

“It’s good for the victim, the family, Red Cross that he has been released,” Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez said.

“They (Abu Sayyaf) should release all three ICRC workers. They shouldn’t have kidnapped them in the first place,” he added.

Iniguez, Public Affairs Committee chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said what the bandit group did was wrong.