Philippine police said Friday they had launched a search after gunmen allegedly kidnapped a U.S. national who was shot in the leg as he tried to resist before being taken by speedboat from a coastal town South.
If it were a kidnapping for ransom, it would be the latest reminder of the long-standing security problems plaguing the southern Philippines, home to a Muslim minority in the largely Catholic country.
Police in the town of Sibuco in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte attempted to pursue the suspected kidnappers and their victim, whom they identified as Elliot Onil Eastman, 26, of Vermont, after the reported kidnapping Thursday evening.
Philippine National Police Regional Office 9 via AP
“We confirm that there has been a report of a suspected kidnapping of an American national,” regional police said in a statement. “We want to assure the public, especially the Sibuco community, that we are doing everything in our power to ensure the victim’s safe recovery.”
Police have asked the public to immediately come forward with any information that may assist in the ongoing investigation into the reported kidnapping.
Two police reports seen by The Associated Press indicate that Sibuco resident Abdulmali Hamsiran Jala reported to police that four men dressed in black, armed with M16 rifles and posing as police officers, had forcibly taken away Eastman , who was trying to escape.
One of the gunmen shot Eastman in the leg before dragging him into a speedboat, then fled by sea further south to Basilan or Sulu provinces, according to police reports .
Police chased but failed to find the gunmen and Eastman and alerted other Philippine police and marine units in the area, according to reports.
Philippine authorities did not immediately provide details about Eastman, but a person with a similar name posted photos and videos of himself on Facebook saying he had married a Muslim woman in Sibuco.
“According to the initial profile given to us, he (Eastman) married a local resident. He has been there for about five months,” the spokesperson told Agence France-Presse. of the regional police, Lieutenant-Colonel Helen Galvez.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to questions about the reported kidnapping.
The southern Philippines has abundant resources, but it has long been crippled by extreme poverty and a multitude of insurgents and outlaws.
A peace deal signed in 2014 between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest of several Muslim separatist groups, significantly eased widespread fighting in the south. Relentless military offensives have weakened small armed groups like the notoriously violent Abu Sayyaf group over the years, sharply reducing kidnappings, bombings and other attacks.
The Abu Sayyaf group, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines, is an offshoot of decades-long Muslim separatist unrest in the south and has carried out mass kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and bombings. bombed more than twenty years ago. the southern region.
They targeted American and Western tourists and religious missionaries, most of whom were released after paying ransoms. A few have been killed, including an American beheaded in the island province of Basilan and an American missionary killed as Philippine military forces tried to rescue him and his wife in 2002 in a rainforest in the town of Sirawai , near Sibuco.
The Philippines will hold midterm elections next year for more than 18,000 local, national and congressional positions, mostly mayors and provincial governors. In the traditionally volatile south, crimes including kidnappings and extortion have traditionally increased as rogue politicians tried to raise money to fuel their campaigns, but only a few isolated incidents have been reported in recent years, according to the authorities.
