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(Update) Vagni asks Abu Sayyaf to give up banditry


NORMAL LIFE. Freed Italian Eugenio Vagni (right) and Italian Ambassador Rubens Fedele in a press conference in Manila on Tuesday. The freed Red Cross worker urges his abductors to lay down their arms in exchange for amnesty. Joe Galvez
MANILA, Philippines - Freed Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni on Tuesday appealed to his former abductors, the Abu Sayyaf group, to come to terms with the government and give up banditry once and for all. "I would like to tell them to pull back and try starting to think about having a normal life," Vagni said at a press conference in Manila. The 62-year-old Italian volunteer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said he would not mind if the government would offer amnesty to the bandit faction in Sulu led by Albader Parad. Sulu vice-governor Nur-Ana "Lady Ann" Sahidulla had earlier said that Parad had expressed to her his willingness to lay down their arms in exchange for government amnesty. She said Parad informed her this right before Vagni was released past Saturday midnight. Despite his six-month captivity, Vagni said that if given the chance, he would still work in the country. "Why not? I love the Filipino people," he said. Vagni faced the media after coming from his courtesy call to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at Malacañang. He has a one-and-a-half-year contract to work in the Philippines, which expired last June, according to the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). Vagni said that even if he still wanted to work in the country, the decision on whether his contract would be renewed lies on the ICRC. He said that he might stay in the Philippines "for four to five days to fix some things." After which, he would fly back to Italy and celebrate his freedom with his friends. Asked to give a message to Filipinos, Vagni told GMANews.TV in an interview, "I thank you very much. I love you." Ordeal Vagni lamented how his long captivity had taken away time that should have been spent with his Thai wife, Kwan, and their two-year-old daughter Leticia. Vagni said that while he thinks that the Abu Sayyaf was solely to blame for his six-month ordeal, he still does not hold a grudge against the bandit group. He acknowledged the group for "helping me in many little things," adding that when he was suffering from hernia and cholera, a man had gone up to their camp and treated him. "I don't know if he was a doctor. But he gave me medicine and fluid," Vagni said. Last January 15, Vagni and his two companions, Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba and Swiss Andreas Notter, were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in Patikul town in Sulu. Lacaba was released on April 2, while Notter walked free from his captors last April 18. Vagni was freed only on July 12. 'Fantastic' efforts Italian Ambassador Rubens Fedele, during Tuesday's press conference, acknowledged the government efforts to secure the freedom of Vagni. "It has been great. This is a success. It's fantastic," he said. Vagni's release materialized party due to the help of Italian philanthropist Armando de Rossi, head of the US-based Promotion of Peace and Prosperity for the Philippines (3P) Foundation. De Rossie helped Sahidulla in convincing Parad's group to release the last seized ICRC worker in exchange for development projects in Sulu. In the Philippines for 33 years, 30 of those in Mindanao, De Rossi has been going around in the region doing charity work including the improvement of water systems in depressed areas, giving livestock to natives, and helping build mosques in the region. "We will go down there next week and sign an agreement where we will do micro-financing, agriculture. We will start of course in Sulu. I love Sulu," De Rossi said on Monday. De Rossi could not immediately give a figure for the amount earmarked for the development project since it was still in the planning stage. - with Sophia M. Dedace, GMANews.TV
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