**Negotiations are continuing between government officials and gunmen who are holding 57 people hostage in the southern Philippines.**Negotiator Josefina Bajade told reporters the hostages were all safe after a night being held by men of the Manobo tribe in eastern Mindanao.
Some reports suggest fresh demands have been made by the gunmen.
The hostage-taking comes three weeks after the political killing of 57 people in another southern province.
Tension rises
Soldiers have been sent to the area in Agusan del Sur to help restrict the movement of the hostage-takers.
The Philippine military spokesman told the BBC all 75 hostages had been released but later reports indicated dozens were still being held.
The AFP news agency reported that the hostage-takers’ leader, Ondo Perez, has stated demands that murder charges against his group must be dropped and members of a rival group disarmed within a week.
If not, he told AFP, the hostages’ lives would be at risk.
These claims were not possible to confirm however, and government sources were more optimistic.
“I am going back to the mountains to convince the armed men to release their hostages unharmed,” Ms Bajade, a provincial social worker who heads of a team of negotiators, told reporters.
“We sent food to the hostages early today and we were assured they will not be touched. We’re optimistic we can resolve this problem by today.”
Ms Bajade confirmed that the armed men had demanded that murder cases against them be dropped. They also asked police to disarm their rivals from the same tribe.
She said the gunmen were receptive to negotiations and that communication lines were open.
The kidnappers belong to a gang of former government-armed militia on the island of Mindanao, police say.
A BBC correspondent says there is no sign of a link to the killing of 57 people on the island last month.
The BBC’s Rachel Harvey in Bangkok says the southern island of Mindanao is awash in weapons as the government has armed a number of civilian groups to help the military and police fight a number of insurgencies.
About 15 gunmen raided a school in a remote village near the town of Prosperidad in Agusan del Sur province early on Thursday.
Negotiators have secured the release of 17 students and one adult.
The incident took place in an area where communist rebels are known to operate, although it is not thought to be related to that four-decades long insurgency.
Nor are the abductions believed to be linked to a Muslim separatist rebellion elsewhere on Mindanao; one of the main insurgent groups is in peace talks with the government.
Martial law was imposed on other side of the island in Maguindanao province last weekend after the political massacre there that left 57 people dead.