Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Muslim rebels of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group were behind the kidnapping of three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on a southern Philippine island, the military said Friday.

First Lieutenant Esteffani Cacho, a regional military spokeswoman, said that based on initial field reports, it was the group of Abu Sayyaf commander Alpader Parad that seized the ICRC staff on Thursday on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila - The Philippine government will investigate allegations of corruption in a road project funded by the World Bank, which blacklisted seven companies due to the charges, officials said Thursday.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the Department of Public Works and Highway already temporarily suspended the firms - three Filipino and four Chinese - from participating in locally-funded or foreign-assisted projects.

The department will make a decision on whether to start blacklisting procedures against the companies in 15 days, he said.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - Three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, including a Swiss national, were abducted by unidentified gunmen in the southern Philippines on Thursday.

The Red Cross team was lead by Andrea Notter, a Swiss citizen, according to Lieutenant General Nelson Allaga, a regional military commander.

The identities of the other team members have not yet been confirmed.

Allaga said the Red Cross workers were supposed to board a flight out of Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, but they did not make it.

"We immediately issued an alarm, and hot pursuit is ongoing to track down the kidnappers," he said.

Manila  - Nine suspected terrorists were arrested in the southern Philippines in separate operations earlier in the week, a military report said Thursday.

The suspects, believed to be members of the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group, were arrested Monday and Tuesday just outside Cotabato City,
930 kilometres south of Manila.

The report did not give details about the identities of the suspects, who were undergoing tactical interrogation in a military camp in Cotabato.

Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines - Three people were killed when a storm surge hit coastal communities in a southern Philippine province, disaster relief officials said Wednesday.

Two people were also missing following the sudden rise of water along the coast of Misamis Oriental province, 795 kilometres south of Manila, affecting three cities and 16 towns.

The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) said three people drowned, including a six-year-old boy, when huge waves crashed into houses along the province's coast since Monday evening.

Many residents were trapped on their rooftops until Wednesday dawn due to high waters.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - One prisoner was killed while 12 inmates, including a suspected Muslim militant, escaped in a jailbreak in the southern Philippines, police said.

The prisoners dug a tunnel out of their cell at the Sulu provincial jail in Patikul town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila. They escaped before dawn on Tuesday.

Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, provincial police director, said the inmates dug the tunnel with the help of residents living near the jail.

Kasim said one of the inmates was killed when jail guards shot at him as he went into the tunnel.

"A wide-scale manhunt operation is on to track down and recapture the remaining inmates," he said.