Authorities in the Philippines have dispatched helicopters, boats and airplanes to search for four people abducted by gunmen from a marina deep in the country’s south.
Three of those abducted are foreign travellers – two of them Canadian – and their seizure shortly before midnight Monday has prompted a large-scale response in a country that sees tourism as one of its most important sources of economic growth.
In Davao City, the southern Philippines centre near the Holiday Ocean View Marina where the people were taken, a police hotline has been flooded with hundreds of tips. One reported a sighting of foreigners at a location not far away, but when soldiers were dispatched to look, they found nothing.
The search has also moved into the air, with spotters on military search flights peering down on the waves up to 200 kilometres south of the the Island Garden City of Samal, where the marina is located, in hopes of seeing something.
But nearly 48 hours after they were seized from their boats, Philippines police and military have found no trace of Kjartan Sekkingstad, John Ridsdel, Robert Hall, and Teresita Flor, nor of who might have taken them.
“There is no evidence yet as to the whereabouts of the abducted victims,” Chief Superintendent of Police Federico Dulay told The Globe and Mail in Davao City.
Even one potential signal – that an attacker spoke English – may have been misleading. “One of the abductors, when he approached one of the victims, asked, ‘Who you?’ ” said Col. Harold Cabreros, who is with the Eastern Mindanao Command, in an interview. “It was just two words, like out of a textbook.”
Instead, authorities have dark security camera footage that does not appear to show the two boats used by the attackers, but which is being sent for further analysis in hopes it can reveal more, including, potentially, linguistic clues to who the men might be.
What police released instead on Wednesday is a rudimentary pencil sketch of one of the 11 attackers based on the description of Kazuko Shibata-Tripp, who with her husband managed to repel the attackers with shouts and fists.
The sketch shows a man with his hair parted slightly on the left, aged 25 to 30 with a dark complexion, a medium build and five-foot-two to five-foot-three in height. The man had a “square face” and was wearing dark clothes, says the police sketch, which labels the case a “kidnapping,” although no ransom has been received.
Indeed, authorities offered no clue as to who might be responsible, save casting doubt on the possible involvement of the New People’s Army, an armed communist group whose initials were left on a handwritten note found about 500 metres from where the attack took place. Police believe that note may have been a “diversionary tactic,” said Chief Supt. Dulay.
The attack would have been carried out by whoever “has the water assets and the arms,” he said.
That amounts to a large number of potential groups in the southern Philippines, which has been plagued by decades of violence between guerrilla groups, freedom fighters and Muslim extremists.
One of those armed groups, Moro National Liberation Front, has actually joined the task force struck to chase down the attackers. TVI Pacific Inc., the Calgary-headquartered company where Mr. Ridsdel previously served as an executive, has said it, too, is mounting a search, although the company declined to provide details.
In an e-mail, company spokeswoman Shirley Anthony said Mr. Ridsdel was on vacation when he was abducted and “was likewise there seeking medical treatment for tuberculosis, pneumonia and a knee injury that inhibits his mobility.” The company and those close to Mr. Ridsdel are worried about his medical condition, “as well as the urgency with which he should be treated.”
At an afternoon press conference in Davao, police were asked whether the abduction could have been an inside job, or whether it might be tied to the upcoming election season, with a national ballot scheduled for May. Past election years have often brought a surge in kidnappings, which can be a profitable source of funds.
Police said they were looking at all possible motives.
But with little to show, they also sought to shift blame, faulting the Ocean View for having just three security guards on duty Monday night, and saying some private resort owners had made it difficult for authorities to ensure property security.
At the Ocean View Marina, meanwhile, Wednesday brought calm. The boaters docked at the marina have largely stayed, even as management brought in a new security company to protect the grounds. Late in the afternoon, under a hazy sky, guards walked the grounds holding shotguns. Boaters and security guards had been instructed not to let any media enter the grounds.
Police have dispatched an additional 28 officers to Samal Island – up from 90 before – but the military declined to provide details on how many people or aircraft it is using to conduct its search.
Abductions have plagued the southern Philippines for decades, often as a means to raise money for local militants. Military forces have occasionally succeeded in freeing victims, most recently last December when Lorenzo Vinciguerra, a Swiss birdwatcher, managed to run away after soldiers attacked the jungle compound where he was held.
Other rescue attempts have gone badly, such as the 2002 effort to save missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. Though Ms. Burnham was freed, Mr. Burnham and Ediborah Yap, a nurse, died in the ensuing gunfight.