I'm saddened by the fact that there are these kind of athletes that competed in the SEA Games, but at the same time I'm glad the Vietnamese officials were able to discover and bring this matter to the attention of the police.

The instruction of the president is for us to secure their release in one batch. Nobody should be left behind.

That may have sent the wrong signal. We have asked the military to go somewhere else while we are doing the negotiations.

I told Lee Peng Wee, the important thing is to free the hostages. I don't care who was responsible for their release, what is important is that we end this problem as soon as possible.

(Estrada) gave the green light, so we will return (Tuesday) and hopefully by Wednesday the actual negotiation would start.

We will try to produce results as soon as possible.

We've received enough assurance from the military that this will not happen again.

We are expecting some response, hopefully within the day.

Just hang on, we will get you out of here -- don't do anything foolish.

It goes without saying that their lives are exposed to extreme danger, so we need to rescue them from that area so they can go back to their loved ones.