Elliot Onil Eastman —Elliot Eastman Facebook photo
PAGADIAN CITY, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, Philippines — While there has yet been no confirmed proof of life for or ransom demand for American national Elliot Eastman 17 days after his abduction, Police believe he is still being kept somewhere in the Zamboanga Peninsula region.
Eastman, who was kidnapped from his home in Sibuco town of Zamboanga del Norte on Oct. 17, might have also been taken to the neighboring islands in the provinces of Basilan and Sulu, according to the police.
Police Lt. Col. Helen Galvez, information officer of the Police Regional Office in Zamboanga Peninsula (PRO 9), said the police had been coordinating with their military counterparts to conduct search and rescue operations in those island provinces.
READ: Persons of interest identified in Zamboanga abduction of US Citizen
She stressed there had been no let up in the police’s pursuit operations against the suspects.
“While there has been no confirmed proof of life for Mr. Eastman for 16 days, the Task Group remains steadfast in its pursuit of the kidnappers and the recovery of the victim, actively following all investigative and intelligence leads,” said Galvez on Sunday.
She urged the community to remain vigilant and to report any information that could lead to the resolution of the case to the authorities.
Two suspects
According to Galvez, police were pursuing two other suspects believed to have a direct hand as principals in Eastman’s kidnapping.
Last Friday, the Provincial Prosecutor of Zamboanga del Norte accepted supplemental affidavits and other critical evidence from witnesses, which led to the identification of two male suspects, both from Sibuco town.
Galvez said the two suspects, who still remained at large, were previously referred to as “John Does” in the criminal case earlier filed against six principal suspects.
“Both are believed to have played direct roles as principals in the kidnapping. These two newly identified suspects are currently being pursued by authorities.”
Eastman, 26, a vlogger who hailed from Vermont, USA, and married to a Filipina, was forcibly taken by armed men from his wife’s home in Sitio Tungawan, Barangay Poblacion, of Sibuco town at around 11 p.m. of Oct. 17.
According to the witnesses, he tried to resist and managed to run away but was shot in the leg. He had been staying in Sibuco town for only five months before his abduction.
Earlier, two suspects who confessed to being point men and spotters during the staging of the kidnapping had surrendered to the authorities, while still another was arrested in a police operation.
Based on the extrajudicial statements, the police’s Critical Incident Management Task Group Eastman filed on Oct. 29 before the Provincial Prosecutors Office in Sindangan town of Zamboanga del Norte criminal complaints of kidnapping and serious illegal detention against six of the principal suspects and other John Does.