Ransom Time Again - Mindanao Kidnapping

[hagler 61]

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/537799/news/regions/3-foreigners-filipina-kidnapped-from-samal-island-resort Edited September 22, 2015 by easy44

[ex231 3,945]

Aquino gave them a holiday this Friday, so maybe they'll be nicer now.

[M.C.A. 603]

I've had a few expats claim that Mindanao is such a safe and beautiful place to live but time and time again it's proven wrong or not much reporting on this.

[Skywalker 19,177]

3 foreigners, Filipina kidnapped from Samal Island resort

 

September 22, 2015 6:08am

Tags: crime, kidnapping, samalisland, davaodelnorte

(Updated 8:39 a.m.) Gunmen kidnapped three foreign nationals and a Filipina from a resort on Samal Island in Davao del Norte, Monday night.

 

RGMA Davao's Raul Tolibas said that according to Superintendent Lito Impas of the Samal Island police, at least 20 armed men wearing balaclavas and black shirts stormed the Ocean View Resort in Barangay Camudmud, Babak district before 11 p.m.

 

Tolibas reported that the gunmen went door to door and snatched all of the occupants.

 

Tolibas said that according to Impas the gunmen initially took five people, but a Canadian named Steven and his Japanese wife, Kazuka, were able to jump from the kidnappers' boat. The couple is now confined at a district hospital on the island.

 

The four kidnapped victims were identified as Kjarten Sakkinstad, a Norwegian and operations manager of the resort; Canadians John Ridsel and Robert Hall and his Filipina wife identified only as Tess.

 

Impas told RGMA Davao that they were requesting a copy of the CCTV footage of the resort.

 

Tolibas said that according to Impas, the kidnappers could be members of the New People's Army or a local bandit group called BAMA or Bangsamoro Army, a mix of breakaway members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front.

 

Tolibas said that the kidnappers wrote the message: "Alay namin sa aming kumander" around the resort, before leaving with their captives.

 

Capt. Alberto Caber, chief of the public affairs office of the Armed Forces' Eastern Mindanao Command, said naval operations were ongoing to locate the kidnappers and their victims.

 

The local Philippine Coast Guard unit and the local police are also conducting pursuit operations.

 

In 2001, the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf tried but failed to abduct tourists from Samal Island's Pearl Farm. Three employees died when they engaged the raiding Abu Sayyaf men in a firefight.

 

Also in 2001, Abu Sayyaf bandits seized local and foreign tourists at the posh Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, including US missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham.

 

Returning to Basilan, the bandits took local hostages along the way, even escaping a military dragnet in Lamitan in June that same year.

 

The Dos Palmas hostage-taking drama ended June 2002 when government security forces stormed the bandits' lair in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte. At the time, three remained as hostages — the Burnham couple and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap.

 

Martin and Ediborah, however, were caught in the crossfire. Gracia survived, but sustained a gunshot wound in her leg. —DVM/ALG, GMA News

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/537799/news/regions/3-foreigners-filipina-kidnapped-from-samal-island-resort#sthash.fi5OFHdB.dpuf

[easy44 5,567]

I've had a few expats claim that Mindanao is such a safe and beautiful place to live but time and time again it's proven wrong or not much reporting on this.

Careful, you're gonna get the Mindanao posse all riled up! They claim Davao City is the safest place in the Philippines and Samal Island is right under Hoss Duterte's nose. This can't be happening, can it? I guess he will send the "death squad" after them. Never fear.

Edited September 22, 2015 by easy44

[hilyfe 1,279]

Easy money again for those guys

And then philippines will be playing cowboys and indians again

[JohnD 1,658]

It does happen though not as often as sometimes thought but it pays to be aware always.

MANILA (Reuters) - Two Canadian tourists, a Norwegian resort manager and a Filipino woman were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from a popular resort island in the southern Philippines, the army said on Tuesday.

Philippines army Captain Alberto Caber said the four were taken at gunpoint during a raid late on Monday night on the Oceanview resort on Samal island, near Davao City, the largest city on Mindanao island in the restive southern Philippines.

Military and police officials were surprised by the latest attack, which came as a reminder of volatile security in the south despite recent 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 Muslim rebel group in the south ended 45 years of conflict that had killed about 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.

"Four people were taken but we do not know what group was behind the attack," Caber told reporters. He said there were about 30 foreign tourists at the resort at the time of the raid.

"It appeared the foreigners were the targets, they were not taken at random," he said.

Caber said the abducted foreigners were identified as John Ridsel and Robert Hall from Canada and Kjartan Sekkingstad, the Norwegian manager of the resort. The Filipino woman was not identified.

Military sources said the gunmen spoke English and Tagalog, the language spoken widely in the Philippines.

"Two Japanese tourists tried to intervene but failed," one of the sources said. The gunmen fled towards the Mindanao mainland with their captives, the source said.

Three navy ships were sent to search and intercept the gunmen's boat, while ground units were also alerted to locate possible landing sites in southeastern Mindanao, an army commander said.

In 2001, al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Islamist militants tried but failed to kidnap foreign tourists on Samal island's Pearl Farm resort. Three security men died fighting the attackers.

Sorry I see someone else posted this story. Not sure how to delete post.

[contraman 29,040]

 

 

. Not sure how to delete post.

Press the Report Button on your post and have a Moderator remove it for you 

[easy44 5,567]

I just combined them since johnD had good info.

[Danishman 231]

Unidentified gunmen have abducted a Norwegian resort manager, two Canadians and a Filipino woman from a southern Philippine island, the military and police said Tuesday.

Two Japanese resort guests unsuccessfully tried to intervene before the gunmen escaped with their hostages aboard a motorized outrigger from Samal Island off Davao City said regional military spokesman Capt. Alberto Caber.

Caber said the gunmen appeared to have specifically targeted the victims when they entered the Holiday Oceanview Samal Resort before midnight Monday on the northern tip of the island, about 975 kilometres southeast of Manila.

Caber said a naval blockade was set up around the island to stop the kidnappers from reaching Basilan Island farther to the southwest where the militants have strongholds where they keep hostages while negotiating ransoms.

Police identified the Norwegian as Kjartan Sekkingstad, the resort’s marina manager, and Canadians as John Ridsel and Robert Hall. The Filipino woman is the wife of one of the Canadians.

Davao del Norte provincial police chief Senior Supt. Samuel Gandingan told government radio station DXRP in Davao City that three men armed with rifles entered the resort before midnight Monday.

Caber said authorities have no immediate suspects. In 2001, Abu Sayyaf militants tried to seize hostages from the Pearl Farm Beach Resort south of Oceanview during a ransom-kidnapping spree in the early 2000s in the southern Philippines.

They seized dozens of Filipino hostages on Basilan and 21 people, mostly European tourists, from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan in 2000, and abducted three Americans and 17 Filipinos in 2001 from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province southwest of Manila.

The Abu Sayyaf, which has about 400 gunmen, was recently declared a terrorist group by a Philippine court and is also on Washington’s lists of terror organizations.

The militants are still holding other hostages, including two Malaysians, a Dutch bird watcher kidnapped nearly three years ago, and a town mayor.

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/gunmen-abduct-canadians-from-philippine-resort-island

 

[easy44 5,567]

Changed the title so maybe we won't have more duplications.

[+RogerDuMond 14,166]

From CNN:

 

"The abductors reportedly sped off towards the nearby Pantukan area in Compostela Valley onboard two motorized bancas after the incident. They left at around 11:30 p.m, according to Sr. Supt. Samuel Gadingan, director of the Davao del Norte Provincial Police.

 

Latest information from the police said that two motorized bancas were recovered in the shores of Governor Generoso in Davao Oriental on Tuesday morning (September 22). The bancas were believed to used by the kidnappers."

 

http://cnnphilippines.com/regional/2015/09/22/3-foreigners-Filipina-kidnapped-Samal-Davao-del-Norte.html

[Raptor 319]

 

 

Tolibas said that according to Impas the gunmen initially took five people, but a Canadian named Steven and his Japanese wife, Kazuka, were able to jump from the kidnappers' boat. The couple is now confined at a district hospital on the island.

 

Hopefully we hear from this guy, but at this point there is no excuse: Stay outta Mindanao resorts, foreigners.

[hilyfe 1,279]

Kidnap for ransom on the raise when ever elections is near

Wonder why

[Soarking 2,233]

Tolibas said that according to Impas the gunmen initially took five people, but a Canadian named Steven and his Japanese wife, Kazuka, were able to jump from the kidnappers' boat. The couple is now confined at a district hospital on the island.

 

Could someone in Davao please find out what hospital they are in and bring them a computer so they can add to this post just how safe it is in Mindanao. I'm sure as soon as they are released from the hospital they are heading right back to the resort.