UK urges citizens to stay out of Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines—The United Kingdom has updated its travel advisory, warning its citizens of kidnappings and terror attacks in the Philippines and telling them to stay out of Mindanao.

In a February 1 advisory, the UK Embassy in Taguig City warned British citizens that terror attacks in the Philippines “could be indiscriminate.”

The advisory came after two Europeans were kidnapped in Tawi-Tawi on Wednesday.

The UK advisory said kidnapping “could occur anywhere, including on coastal and island resorts and dive sites in the Sulu Sea.”

The embassy advised against “all travel to southwest Mindanao”—Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Sarangani, North and South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.

“We also advise against all but essential travel to the remainder of Mindanao because of ongoing terrorist activities,” it said.

“There have been a number of attacks against civilian targets. Since November 2011, there have been at least 10 bombing incidents in North Cotabato, Cotabato City, Sulu, Sultan Kudarat and Zamboanga, killing a total of eight people and leaving 66 others wounded,” it said.

The advisory also said elsewhere in the Philippines, “there is a high incidence of violent crimes.”

“Criminal gangs sometimes use terrorist tactics, such as kidnapping and explosion,” said the embassy.

“There is a high incidence of street crimes and robberies. Armed holdups have occurred on jeepneys and buses and have, in some cases, resulted in fatalities,” it said.

Malacañang condemned on Thursday the kidnapping of Elwold Horn, 52, of The Netherlands, and Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 47, of Switzerland in Tawi-Tawi.

Abigail Valte, one of several Palace spokespersons, said Malacañang has ordered all concerned agencies of government to work for the release or rescue of the Europeans.

She said the provincial crisis management committee of Tawi-Tawi has been handling the case.

Horn and Vinciguerra were snatched with a Filipino, Ivan Sarenas, a vanishing bird expert who accompanied the Europeans and who escaped from their captors.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, said Valte, has been keeping the embassies of The Netherlands and Switzerland “abreast of all relevant information” on the case.

She said she didn’t believe that the kidnappings of Horn and Vinciguerra would hurt the government’s tourism campaign, however.

Police and soldiers were on their way to secure the release of the victims, according to military spokespersons.

Tawi-Tawi Governor Sadikul Sahali said he suspected that local residents were behind the kidnapping.

The Europeans spent 14 days in the town of Panglima Sugala in Tawi-Tawi for bird watching, according to the governor.

The captors, said Sahali, allowed the victims “to live so it was possible they only wanted money by holding the foreigners.” The perpetrators, he said, “are probably locals.”

Senior Supt. Rodelio Jocson, Tawi-Tawi police director, said another sign that the kidnappers were not outsiders was the burning of a boat that was used in transporting the captives.

The boat, said Jocson, was burned “to conceal the identity of the owner.”

Another boat that the kidnappers used, he said, was recovered in the village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala.

“They could be locals or maybe people who have contact with the locals,” said the police chief.

With a report from Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao and DJ Yap