PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo has rejected a proposal by the Abu Sayyaf that Justice Secretary Hernando Perez be sent to negotiate for the release of its American and Filipino hostages. 

“It’s a policy of the government that a Cabinet member should not be a negotiator, and I agree with the President,” Perez told reporters yesterday, after a Cabinet meeting where a purported letter from the Abu Sayyaf was discussed. 

The President herself refused to comment on the government’s response to the supposed letter delivered to her Saturday by ex-hostage Francis Ganzon. 

“I’m not replying through the media. Negotiations should not be done through the media. Nothing through the media,” said the President, who had earlier sought a news blackout on the government’s operations against the Abu Sayyaf. 

Perez said he was willing to talk to the Abu Sayyaf only if Ms Macapagal authorized him to. 

He said the President and the Cabinet deemed the act of sending a Cabinet official to negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf as “glorifying” the bandit group. 

“It can be handled by those in the lower Cabinet level,” he said, adding that the Abu Sayyaf would have to deal with William Castillo, the government-designated negotiator. 

Ms Macapagal’s spokesperson Rigoberto Tiglao announced Monday that the Abu Sayyaf had sent a letter through Ganzon. 

The letter supposedly stated that the Abu Sayyaf released Ganzon and hostage Kimberly Jao Uy “unconditionally,” but that there should be a “reopening of talks” with the government through Perez. 

It was supposedly written by Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani on June 14, two days after the group’s spokesperson Abu Sabaya announced through the Radio Mindanao Network that American hostage Guillermo Sobero had been beheaded as an “Independence Day gift” to the President. 

But National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said it could not be confirmed if Janjalani had indeed written the letter. 

Asked if the government’s rejection of the request could jeopardize the lives of the remaining hostages, Perez said: “It’s a position that the government has taken. Aside from that, I have no training whatsoever as a negotiator.” 

Later in an ambush interview, he said he could not say why the Abu Sayyaf asked for him in particular. 

“I was probably selected because of my high profile,” he told reporters with a smile. 

The President yesterday named Perez head of the National Anti-Crime Council. With reports from Norman Bordadora, Cathy C. Yamsuan, AFP