Manila - The Philippine military kept mum on Saturday on the continuing efforts to rescue three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers seized by Islamist militants earlier in the week.

First Lieutenant Esteffani Cacho, spokeswoman for the armed forces' Western Mindanao Command, said the military will no longer provide updates regarding the kidnappings of Swiss Andreas Notter, 38; Eugenio Vagni, 62; and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, 44.

The three had just visited the provincial jail on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila on Thursday when suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels blocked the path of their vehicle and seized them.

Manila - Eighteen people were killed in flashfloods and landslides caused by two weeks of heavy rains in the southern and eastern Philippines, the Office of Civil Defence (OCD) said Friday.

Eight fatalities were reported in the eastern provinces of Northern Samar, Catanduanes and Capiz, while 10 were killed in the southern province of Misamis Oriental and Agusan del Sur.

The victims drowned or were buried in landslides, the OCD said.

Nine people were still reported missing and feared dead in the affected provinces.

More than 314,000 people were adversely affected by the heavy rains in 13 eastern and southern provinces, where nearly 3,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, the OCD said.

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.