PAGADIAN CITY – An Italian restaurateur was seized by gunmen late Wednesday in the southern Philippines, the fourth foreigner kidnapped in just two weeks in the restive region.
The Philippine military has confirmed the abduction of Rolando del Torquio, who owns Ur Choice Pizza House in the village of Miputak in Dipolog City in Zamboanga del Norte province. He was taken from inside his restaurant and dragged to a waiting van outside.
“One Italian national named Rolando del Torquio was abducted by unidentified suspects on board a white van. They were monitored to have transferred to a motorized banca that departed towards Manukan town in Zamboanga del Norte,” Captain Roy Trinidad, a military spokesman, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said the kidnappers are believed to be heading to Jolo town in the Sulu Archipelago and that security forces have been alerted in the area.
“It is believed the kidnappers will travel westward towards Jolo passing the towns of Sindangan, Siocon and Sirawai,” Trinidad said.
No other details on the Italian were made available by the military, but Torquio was a former missionary working for the Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere and deployed in Zamboanga del Norte.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the latest kidnapping, but this occurred just as Philippine authorities were searching for Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall; and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, and Filipina Maritess Flor who were taken by suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels from the upscale Holiday Oceanview Samal Resort on Samal Island off Davao del Norte province.
Two of 11 gunmen who kidnapped the four holidaymakers were arrested recently by authorities, according to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is helping secure the freedom of the victims.
Duterte said he was briefed by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) on the arrest of the duo – one of them is Bandahar Adona alias Banon. “I was privy to that. I was invited to the briefing to listen,” the Philippines News Agency quoted Duterte as telling journalists in Davao del Sur’s Santa Cruz town.
Adona was positively identified from the video taken by security cameras during the September 21 kidnappings.
Duterte did not give details of the arrests of the two men or whether they are members of the Abu Sayyaf which the military claimed was behind the daring raid on the resort. But the arrests came after ISAFP traced calls made by the kidnappers from their cell phones in Davao City.
He said the hostages were allegedly taken by boat to Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region, but police and military cannot confirm Duterte’s report that the holidaymakers are being held by the Abu Sayyaf there. (Mindanao Examiner)
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