Philippine TV reporter kidnapped on rebel isle

MANILA, June 11 (Reuters) - One of the Philippines' top TV reporters and two assistants have been kidnapped, the ABS-CBN network said on Wednesday, after the team went missing on an island that is a hotbed of Islamic radicals linked to al Qaeda.

The country's largest television network said that Ces Drilon, Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama had been kidnapped for ransom on Jolo island. The crew has been missing since Sunday.

"ABS-CBN News is doing everything it can to help the families of its kidnapped journalists through this harrowing ordeal," the network said in a statement.

"However, ABS-CBN News will abide by its policy not to pay ransom because this would embolden kidnap for ransom groups to abduct other journalists, putting more lives at risk."

The network did not say who it believed was responsible for the kidnap. But Jolo is used as a base by the Abu Sayyaf militants, who are notorious for kidnapping for ransom.

Police said negotiations had started to free Drilon, her two assistants and a Mindanao State University (MSU) professor who was serving as the guide for the TV news crew on Jolo island.

Joel Goltiao, regional police chief in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said efforts were being made after contact had been established with the group holding the hostages.

"There's a good chance Drilon and company will be released," Goltiao told a radio interview on Wednesday. "I just cannot give you a certain date."

In 2000, the Abu Sayyaf held about 20 people, mostly Western tourists and Malaysian resort workers from nearby Sipadan island, for about three months and freed them after more than $10 million was paid for their release.

A year later, three Americans and more than a dozen Filipino tourists and resort workers were taken from Palawan. Two of the Americans were killed, including one who was beheaded, while the rest were freed after ransom.

The 300-member Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the worst militant attack in the Philippines, the bombing of a ferry near Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

Since 2002, U.S. military forces have been helping train and advise Philippine troops to fight the Abu Sayyaf, pouring about $500 million in combat equipment and development projects to help turn Muslim communities against the radicals. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)