ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 2, 2012) – Security forces continued Thursday searching for a Dutch and a Swiss wildlife photographers abducted by Filipino gunmen in the southern Tawi-Tawi province, police and military said.
Authorities said Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, of Switzerland, are still being held in captivity since Wednesday. Their Filipino guide Ivan Sadinas, 35, of Davao City, was able to escape and is now being debriefed by the police.
Five gunmen seized the trio on the village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town.
It said the foreigners, who arrived in the province a week ago, were taking photographs of wild birds on the town when gunmen seized them.
“The operation is going on to recover the hostages,” Senior Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, the provincial police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said police and military forces were deployed to track down the gunmen.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte condemned the abduction of the foreigners and urged tourists to coordinate with their own embassies regarding advisories on conditions that may affect their travel and other arrangements while visiting the Philippines.
“We condemn the abduction; and the national and local governments, as well as all agencies concerned, are working to ensure the resolution of the situation, the recovery and release of the men who remain in the hands of their captors, and the bringing to justice of the lawless elements involved,” she said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Valte said the Tawi-Tawi crisis management committee was immediately activated and that Governor Sadikul Sahali, through the crisis management committee, is in charge of all police and military operations.
“Joint elements of the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Navy, and Philippine Marines are now conducting search operations. For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs has notified the embassies of the nationals concerned, and will keep them abreast of all relevant information and updates on the situation,” she said.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the abduction, but Abu Sayyaf militants are known to operate in the province where they kidnapped a Malaysian fish trader Pang Choon Pong in October last year and is still being held in captivity.
Abu Sayyaf militants also kidnapped two Malaysian seaweed farm workers Vui Chung, 42, and his cousin Lai Wing Chau, 33, in Tawi-Tawi in February 2010 and were freed later in the same year after their families paid some 2 million ringgits.
The group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya had also kidnapped 21 mostly Western holidaymakers in Sabah’s resort island of Sipadan in 2001 and brought them by boat to the southern Philippines. The hostages were then ransomed off to Malaysia and Libya – which negotiated for their release – for millions of dollars.
The Abu Sayyaf is still holding another Malaysian lizard trader, a Japanese man, an Indian national married to a Filipina, an Australian citizen and three Filipinos in the restive region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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