Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 2, 1990 TAG: 9007020025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANILA, PHILIPPINES LENGTH: Medium
Timothy Swanson, 26, of Cheyenne, Wyo., was taken by gunmen June 13 from his home in Patag, a remote village in the mountains of Negros Island, Philippine and U.S. sources said.
Swanson was believed the first Peace Corps volunteer kidnapped by the rebels and the first American held by the New People's Army since nine airmen were detained briefly in 1986.
In Kennebunkport, Maine, where he was vacationing, President Bush called the kidnapping a sign of "the age of the terrorist."
"We've been very much worried about this," he said.
Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager said American officials learned of Swanson's disappearance Saturday after trying to contact him as part of the evacuation of volunteers from the Philippines.
But Bush's national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, told reporters, "We first heard about it maybe a week ago, close to a week ago."
Last week, the United States recalled the 261 Peace Corps volunteers in the country after intelligence reports indicated that rebels might try to kill or kidnap them.
Schrager said American officials rushed to Negros to discuss ways to win Swanson's release, but said the United States would not pay ransom for Swanson's freedom.
On Sunday, the retired Roman Catholic bishop of Negros, the Rev. Antonio Fortich, said Swanson had been friendly with New People's Army guerrillas.
Swanson's father, Leonard, said in an interview in Cheyenne on Sunday that his son knew rebels in the area where he worked on a reforestation project but that he never considered them a threat. "He tried to be friendly with all the folks in the village and all who he encountered," Swanson's father said.
According to Fortich, four to eight armed rebels came to Swanson's home in the Negros mountains last month and told his Filipino wife, Merly, they were "borrowing" her husband.
Fortich said the wife received a note from her husband last week saying he was well but asking for his glasses, reading materials and clothes. She left the items in a bag outside their home and a rebel courier retrieved it at night, Fortich said.
President Corazon Aquino's press secretary, Tomas Gomez, said the embassy notified Philippine officials of the disappearance Saturday. Gomez said the kidnapping might have been avoided if the United States had consulted Philippine authorities on security.
"They refused to listen to a security briefing," Gomez said.
The U.S. decision to withdraw the Peace Corps volunteers drew criticism from Philippines officials, who said the United States was overreacting to the alleged threats.
Communist rebels are believed to have killed eight Americans since April 1989.
by CNB