Abu Sayyaf eyed in daring kidnap

Pursuit operations

Military and police officials were surprised by the latest attack, which came as a reminder of volatile security in the South despite peace initiatives with Islamist rebels.

The Davao region has been relatively peaceful for more than a decade. In 2014, a peace agreement with the largest Moro rebel group in the South ended 45 years of conflict that had killed about 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.

Nicolas Doire, a spokesman for Canada’s foreign ministry in Ottawa, said they were aware of the kidnapping but declined to comment or release information that “may compromise ongoing efforts and risk endangering the safety of the Canadian citizens abroad.”

Shirley Anthony, a spokesperson for Calgary-based TVI Pacific Inc., confirmed that Ridsdel, a semiretired consultant, was among those taken by the gunmen.

Senior Supt. Roberto B. Fajardo, chief of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG), said investigators were still trying to identify the suspects.

Pursuit operations against the abductors and victims were going on, said Senior Supt. Wilben Mayor.

“The AKG is actively pursuing leads and efforts to bring about the safe recovery of kidnapped persons,” Mayor said.

Foreigners were targets

The abductions add to a string of kidnappings of foreigners in Mindanao since the early 1990s, most often by Islamic militants seeking to extort ransoms.

Police said the gunmen sailed two motorboats into a marina on Samal before midnight on Monday and seized the four victims from aboard yachts, apparently knowing exactly who they wanted to abduct, police said.

“They appeared to target the foreigners. They went straight for the yachts,” said Supt. Antonio Rivera, a local police spokesman.

Law-enforcement boats and helicopters were scouring the waters around the island on Tuesday to try to stop the kidnappers from leaving the area, according to Rivera, but they appeared to have escaped.

Samal, a short boat ride from the commercial center of Davao, is famed for its dive spots, with resorts there charging up to $500 a night.

The area is a popular stop for foreign tourists who sail around the nation’s many tropical islands.

Decades of conflict

But Mindanao has endured decades of conflict. Parts of the South are home to the Abu Sayyaf, a ragtag group that has withstood US-backed military operations to extinguish it.

They have engaged in frequent kidnappings in often successful efforts to extort ransoms. They are also blamed for the nation’s worst terrorist attack, the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila that claimed more than 100 lives.

In their most recent kidnapping of foreigners, Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized a German couple in April last year while they were sailing off Palawan province, a popular tourist destination.

The couple was released six months later, with the Abu Sayyaf claiming it had received all of the P250 million it demanded in ransom.

The Abu Sayyaf is currently holding four other foreigners—a Dutch man, a Korean and two Malaysians, according to the military.

“The whole force of the government, may it be the military, the police and other members of the security sector are on alert in Mindanao to prevent this kind of incident from happening again,” said Col. Restituto Padilla, AFP spokesman.—Reports from Frinston Lim, Karlos Manlupig, Germelina Lacorte, Judy Quiros, Dennis Santos and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao; Jerry E. Esplanada, Julie M. Aurelio and Jaymee T. Gamil in Manila; and wires

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