Troops mount search for seized birdwatchers

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Security forces continued Thursday searching for a Dutch and a Swiss wildlife photographers abducted by Filipino gunmen in the southern Tawi-tawi province, police and military said.

Authorities said Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, of Switzerland, are still being held in captivity since Wednesday. Their Filipino guide Ivan Sadinas, 35, of Davao City, was able to escape and is now being debriefed by the police.

Five gunmen seized the trio on the village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town.

It said the foreigners, who arrived in the province a week ago, were taking photographs of wild birds on the town when gunmen seized them.

“The operation is going on to re- cover the hostages,” said Senior Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, the provincial police chief.

He said police and military forces were deployed to track down the gunmen.

Malacañang reaction

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte condemned the abduction of the foreigners and urged tourists to coordinate with their own embassies regarding advisories on conditions that may affect their travel and other arrangements while visiting the Philippines.

“We condemn the abduction; and

All-out operation

the national and local governments, as well as all agencies concerned, are working to ensure the resolution of the situation, the recovery and release of the men who remain in the hands of their captors, and the bringing to justice of the lawless elements involved,” she said.

Valte said the Tawi- Tawi crisis management committee was immediately activated and that Governor Sadikul Sahali, through the crisis management committee, is in charge of all police and military operations.

“Joint elements of the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Navy, and Philippine Marines are now conducting search operations. For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs has notified the embassies of the nationals concerned, and will keep them abreast of all relevant information and updates on the situation,” she said. “There is a massive search-and-rescue operation right now to find the kid- nappers and their captives,” regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang told AFP.

“Though, as of the moment, we have not pinpointed their exact location.”

Cabangbang said it remained unclear who abducted the men, but noted a spate of other kidnappings of foreigners in the south that were blamed on the Al-qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that the Abu Sayyaf is involved,” he said. “However, I must stress there are other armed groups, including pirates, who also operate in these waters.”

Cabangbang said the first 24 hours were crucial in deciding the fate of people kidnapped in the area because this was when they were typically taken into the abductors’ rugged jungle lairs on remote islands.

“If the trail goes cold, the chances of recovering them swiftly will vanish little by little,” he said. Looking for rarest hornbills, pigeons Ivan Sarenas, a Filipino guide for the two wildlife enthusiasts, was also kidnapped, but said he managed to jump off a boat that was taking the abducted men away.

“There was a passing boat and I decided to go for it. I held the barrel of the long firearm of the man in front of me with one arm and jumped out,” he recounted.

Sarenas said they were seized while on an expedition to photograph extremely rare pigeon and hornbill species on the Tawi Tawi islands, which are in the Sulu Sea, closer to Malaysian Borneo than major Philippine landmass.

“They are both into hornbills and they told me they wanted to see the rarest ones before they grew old,” Sarenas said.

Sarenas is a member of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and officials with the organization said information they had received indicated the foreigners were initially abducted by locals and not wellknown militants.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the abduction, but Abu Sayyaf militants are known to operate in the province where they kidnapped a Malaysian fish trader Pang Choon Pong in October last year and is still being held in captivity.

Abu Sayyaf militants also kidnapped two Malaysian seaweed farm workers Vui Chung, 42, and his cousin Lai Wing Chau, 33, in TawiTawi in February 2010 and were freed later in the same year after their families paid some 2 million ringgits.

The group tied to al-qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya had also kidnapped 21 mostly Western holidaymakers in Sabah’s resort island of Sipadan in 2001 and brought them by boat to the southern Philippines. The hostages were then ransomed off to Malaysia and Libya—which negotiated for their release—for millions of dollars.

The Abu Sayyaf is still holding another Malaysian lizard trader, a Japanese man, an Indian national married to a Filipina, an Australian citizen and three Filipinos in the restive region.