ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 13, 2012) – Efforts to locate a kidnapped Australian adventurer continue in the southern Philippines, but security officials admitted Tuesday that the search has been difficult.
Warren Rodwell, 52, was kidnapped by gunmen posing as policemen in December last year from his seaside home in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province in the western part of the troubled region of Mindanao.
Rodwell, who is married to a Filipina, Miraflor Gutang, 27, was shot by the gunmen as he attempted to fight off the kidnappers, police said.
Authorities said Rodwell, a former soldier in the Australian army, is being held by Abu Sayyaf militants, whose group is tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, and has been blamed for the spate of kidnappings for ransom and terrorism in the southern Philippines.
“We have been working hard to track down Rodwell and his kidnappers in Basilan, but they have been constantly moving from one hideout to another. It’s a difficult task, but the search is continuing,” Army Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Col. Ricardo Visaya, commander of military forces in Basilan province, said the operation against the Abu Sayyaf is continuing, but would not say anything about the progress of the rescue operation.
The kidnappers have demanded $2 million ransom for Rodwell’s release. Both the Philippines and Australia flatly rejected the demand, although the kidnappers wanted to negotiate Rodwell’s freedom with Gov. Rommel Jalosjos, of Zamboanga Sibugay province.
Jalosjos has imposed a news blackout on the kidnapping of Rodwell.
Just over the weekend, unidentified gunmen also seized the son of a fish pen owner who is also a village official in the town of Ipil.
The assailants, armed with automatic rifles and pistols, abducted Meljhan Auditor, 20, who was only visiting their fish pen.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but Muslim rebels and criminal gangs with links to Abu Sayyaf is actively operating in the province, just 100 kilometers east of Zamboanga City.
The motive of the abduction is still unknown, but the military said it could be the handiwork of small criminal group extorting money from fish pen operators.
The military put up additional checkpoints in the town and doubled its patrol to help the local police track down the perpetrators.
It was the second abduction in the town since Rodwell. (Mindanao Examiner)
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