Australian abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Bloodstains were found outside the home of an Australian national who was abducted by gunmen on Monday in Barangay (village) Upper Pangi, Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, police said.

Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (Dipo) in Western Mindanao, said Warren Richard Rodwell, 53, could have struggled with his abductors and was wounded in the scuffle.

Senior Superintendent Ruben Cariaga, Zamboanga Sibugay police director, said “a witness heard somebody screaming in pain after a shot was heard but it was in Visayan so we really don’t know if it was Rodwell or one of the armed men.” Investigators recovered an empty .45-cal. shell, he added.

Cariaga said Rodwell was stocky and about six feet tall. “We have the impression his captors had difficulty pinning him down because of his build,” he said.

Rodwell, a retired member of the Australian Army, was alone in his home in Green Meadows Subdivision when seven armed men barged in at 6 p.m.

Chief Superintendent Elpidio de Asis, chief of police in Western Mindanao, said the armed men “tied the victim’s hands and withdrew toward the forested area of Barangay Upper Pangi.”

But other witnesses said the victim was dragged toward the shore and was forced into a small boat. De Asis said the police were looking at the Abu Sayyaf as possibly being behind the abduction.

Cariaga said this theory was based on a similar incident in which Abu Sayyaf gunmen were involved.

Rodwell, who hails from Strathfield in New South Wales, has been in the Philippines since May 10.

On June 1, he married Miraflor Gutang, 27, of Ipil. The couple moved into their Green Meadows house in October.

But the couple had not been living together since November 25 when they had a fight, Cariaga said.

Rodwell was the sixth foreign national abducted in Mindanao this year.

In October, gunmen seized three South Koreans in Lanao del Norte as they looked for mining sites. They were released after more than a month in captivity but one of them, Choi In-Soo, suffered a bleeding stomach ulcer and died on December 2 at a hospital in Cagayan de Oro City.

In Canberra, Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Tuesday her government had established a task force to investigate the kidnapping.

“We are certainly aware that an Australian in the Philippines… may have been kidnapped. There are media reports to that effect as well. In these circumstances, a task force has been formed to deal with this issue. Our embassy in the Philippines is working with local authorities to try and establish the full facts here. We are providing consular support and assistance to family members of the man who may be involved in these kidnap circumstances,” Gillard said in a press conference in Canberra (https://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/transcript-press-conference-canberra-20). With reports from Bobby Lagsa, Inquirer Mindanao; and Jerome Aning