Hostages taken to remote mountain region – PNP
Gunmen holding three foreigners and one Filipina hostage have slipped past a naval cordon and escaped to the mountains of Davao Oriental, officials said yesterday.
President Aquino said a new group has emerged and could be responsible for last Monday’s kidnapping in Samal Island.
He said there was an ongoing review as to what happened and based on initial reports, a new group appeared to be responsible.
“Our intelligence services will make an account. How come this escaped the radar? Or maybe this group is really just newly formed. We don’t know. Even their motivation is not very clear. What is their objective in kidnapping?” Aquino said.
The President did not elaborate, stressing the need to preserve operational security while government forces are hunting down the kidnappers.
The gunmen seized two Canadian tourists, a Norwegian employee and a Filipina from the Oceanview resort on Samal Island in Davao del Norte on Monday night, adding to a string of kidnappings of foreigners in the southern Philippines since the 1990s.
Elite Army troops were tracking the gunmen while Air Force helicopters were readied for a possible rescue as the kidnappers trekked into Davao Oriental, regional police director Senior Supt. Aaron Aquino said.
He said they received information late Tuesday that the kidnappers and their captives were spotted in an area somewhere in Davao Oriental province.
“Our Scout Rangers are following their tracks. They are on their trail. The Air Force is also helping, ready for insertion,” said Aquino, the regional police director.
Police and the Navy had tried to set up a boat blockade on Tuesday around Samal Island, where the four were snatched, to stop the gunmen from escaping on their outriggers.
The police official’s comments confirmed the kidnappers had slipped past and sailed about 50 kilometers east to Davao Oriental, on the far southeastern edge of Mindanao.
Canadian tourists John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50, were among those kidnapped, police said.
The other foreigner was Norwegian resort employee Kjartan Sekkinstad, 56, and the Filipina was Hall’s 40-year-old girlfriend, Maritess Flor.
It was not clear which group was behind the abductions.
“We are waiting for contact from the kidnappers so we will know their demands,” Aquino said.
Investigators were looking at the possible involvement of communist New People’s Army (NPA) or Muslim rebel groups who were excluded from the peace treaty signed in 2014 with the government, according to Aquino.
Communist and Moro rebels have been waging a decades-long struggle that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The impoverished regions of Mindanao have proved fertile recruiting grounds and sanctuary for both groups.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, chairman of the Southern Mindanao regional peace and order council, disagreed with the possibility that the NPA was behind the kidnapping.
Duterte said the note left by the kidnappers in the Samal resort that supposedly attributed the crime to the NPA could be a diversionary tactic.
He said the kidnappers were too organized and carried out the operation in a professional manner.
Aquino also said he doubted the involvement of the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group infamous for carrying out dozens of kidnappings-for-ransom of foreigners as well as locals since the early 1990s.
The outriggers used to storm the marina on Samal Island at midnight on Monday were not the high-speed boats typically used by the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group.
Transfer of custody
Security forces searching for the kidnappers and their captives yesterday found the getaway boats the gunmen used.
“At this point, we still could not identify any group behind the abduction,” Armed Forces spokesman Col. Noel Detoyato said.
“Two motorized bancas were recovered on the shores of Tibanban,” he said, referring to a fishing village in Davao Oriental, located 100 kilometers southeast of Samal Island.
Nevertheless, armed bandits have in the past kidnapped foreigners in Mindanao and sold them to the Abu Sayyaf.
Sources from the military revealed the kidnappers had traveled all the way to Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur.
“It means that the victims have been transferred already to another area in which they could have been handed over to another group, perhaps in exchange for money,” a security official said.
President Aquino also noted the possibility that the new group of kidnappers could have transferred the captives to the Abu Sayyaf to negotiate for a higher ransom demand.
“Maybe we can clarify that in many of the kidnapping (cases) that are happening, a group will carry out the abduction and then turn the victims over to the Abu Sayyaf, amongst others, to help them keep the (captives) while they conduct negotiations,” Aquino said.
The President said his confidence is high as far as the police and the military are concerned in terms of hunting down the kidnappers.
“The negotiators are composed of other groups and we are hunting down all of these groups. Will they be found? I will not impose a deadline but we have to immediately identify what group carried out the kidnapping. The authorities should know this without being reminded,” Aquino said when asked if the case would be resolved in time for the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila in November.
“Rest assured, our security sector will not stop until they catch this group,” Aquino told reporters.
The President’s assurance echoed comments made by the nation’s leaders whenever a foreigner has been kidnapped, but the captives’ releases have generally only been secured with ransom payments.
Last Monday’s abductions added to a string of kidnappings of foreigners and locals in the conflict-plagued Mindanao since the 1990s, which have been typically carried out by the Abu Sayyaf seeking to extort ransom.
An intelligence official revealed that as early as last month there were reports that the Abu Sayyaf was planning to pull a kidnapping caper in Davao City.
“The report was forwarded to the higher ups after which we don’t know if the report was acted upon,” the security official said, adding that the information came from a captured Abu Sayyaf militant.
Detoyato, for his part, also said this was possible, but without any validated information it would be difficult to speculate if the Abu Sayyaf was behind last Monday’s kidnapping.
In 2001, the Abu Sayyaf tried but failed to kidnap foreign tourists on Samal Island’s Pearl Farm resort. Three security men died fighting the attackers.
“We cannot just speculate on that. As of now, it is an abduction and there is an ongoing law enforcement operation,” Detoyato said.
He said troops were scouring Mindanao in search of the victims and their abductors.
“Our troops were deployed along the shorelines, particularly in the eastern seaboard going towards Sarangani and Davao Oriental. That is the concentration of our naval and air assets and even our ground troops that are helping in the operations,” he said.
Isolated incident
The Philippines gave assurance that tighter security measures would be implemented for world leaders and delegates of the APEC Leaders’ Summit in November after the latest kidnapping in Davao.
However, the Canadian embassy in Manila updated its travel advisory on the Philippines.
The embassy advised Canadians to exercise high degree of caution in traveling to southern Philippines, citing the serious threat of terrorist attacks and kidnapping.
The Norwegian embassy also took notice that one of their countrymen was a victim of last Monday’s kidnapping.
“The Philippines is committed to hosting a successful APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) by implementing security measures that would ensure the safety of all APEC leaders, delegates and guests,” said Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose, also the spokesman for the APEC meetings.
“The incident in Samal Island is being addressed by our concerned authorities to resolve the issue and ensure that the hosting of the AELM is not affected,” Jose said.
Senate President Franklin Drilon also said the kidnapping in Davao was an “isolated law enforcement incident,” which should be resolved with dispatch.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the recent abductions of these foreigners along with a Filipino woman in Davao and call upon the Philippine National Police (PNP) to ensure safe return of these individuals to their families and arrest the perpetrators of this crime the soonest,” Drilon said.
PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez also described the kidnapping as an isolated case.
“There is no trend in other parts of the country. But we have to provide particular focus since it will have particular effect on the country’s reputation,” Marquez said.