Suspected Philippine kidnap vessel found abandoned at Jolo port
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 6:53am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 September, 2015, 6:53am
Agence France-Presse in Zamboanga
A policeman points to a boat allegedly used by the kidnappers of three foreigners and a Filipina on Samal island, found abandoned in Jolo island. Photo: AFP
Philippine authorities have found a boat they suspect was used by kidnappers to take a group of mainly Western hostages to an island stronghold of Islamic militants, the military said.
The vessel was abandoned at a port on Jolo, more than 500km from the Samal island resort where two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipina were abducted last week, Brigadier-General Alan Arrojado said.
Jolo is the main base of the Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-linked group that has been blamed for the Asian country's deadliest terror attacks, beheadings, and ransom kidnappings of foreign tourists and Christian missionaries.
"We have eyeballed the seacraft, but not the kidnap victims from Samal," Arrojado, head of a Jolo counter-terrorism task force, said. "They [local police] are sending us a picture for validation," Arrojado said after the authorities found the 25-metre outrigger at a port in the Jolo town of Parang.
Philippine coast guard personnel patrol the waters on a speed boat near Davao City and Samal island, off the southern island of Mindanao, during the search for kidnapped foreigners. Photo: AFP
Officials would not say if the discovery pointed to possible Abu Sayyaf involvement in the kidnapping of Canadian tourists John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50, as well as Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad, 56, and Hall's girlfriend Marites Flor.
No group has claimed responsibility or demanded ransom for the abductions, the military said.
Arrojado said the boat suspected of taking the hostages to Jolo was fitted with two onboard engines, but was taking in water apparently from a breach in its hull.
Regional police spokesman Antonio Rivera said of all the "threat groups" in the south, those based on Jolo were the ones most skilled in using boats.
Philippine Marines rescue a mock kidnap victim during a recent five-day amphibious military exercise. Photo: AP
However, he added: "We cannot say that they [Abu Sayyaf] are involved at this time."
The Abu Sayyaf raided another upmarket Samal resort in 2001, killing two people, but were repelled by the resort's private guards.
The authorities earlier said they had received reports the kidnappers had taken their victims to an impoverished region to the east of Samal.
Jolo-based Abu Sayyaf and several other renegade Muslim rebel groups have in recent years worked together to kidnap foreigners elsewhere in the south, with the victims eventually taken back to Jolo, security analyst Rodolfo Mendoza said.
Norwegian Kjartan Sekkinstad (L), 56, and Canadians John Ridsdel (C), 68, and Robert Hall (R). Photo: AFP
"They have done it not only on western Mindanao [including Jolo] but they are now also doing it on the eastern Mindanao side," said Mendoza, president of the Manila think-tank Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism.
