DAVAO CITY – Armed men stormed a tourist resort in southern Philippines and seized 3 foreigners and a Filipina, the military reported on Tuesday, adding a massive search was launched to recover the victims.
The military said the raid on Holiday Oceanview resort in Samal Island in Davao del Norte province occurred before midnight Monday after gunmen overpowered private security guards.
Army Captain Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, has confirmed the abductions and said two Canadians and a Norwegian national, including the Filipina were taken by the gunmen who escaped on a speedboat.
“We still don’t know who these men were, but there is already an operation to track down the captors and their victims,” he said.
Caber identified the victims as Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall; and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad. The name of the Filipina is still unknown, he said.
Other sources said Ridsdel was a former senior official of Canadian mining firm TVI Resources Development Inc., in Zamboanga del Norte province. He was vacationing with his girlfriend and was on a yacht moored in the resort’s marina when the incident occurred.
Caber said there were more than two dozen, mostly foreigners, on the resort and that two Japanese men tried to fight off the attackers, but failed. The two men also escaped abduction, he said.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the raid and it was unknown if the rebel group Abu Sayyaf – notorious for kidnapping of foreigners and raid at tourist resorts in southern Philippines and Sabah – was behind the attack.
Samal is one of the famous tourist resorts in the Philippines and is a favorite destination of wealthy Filipinos because of its pristine beaches. (Mindanao Examiner)
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