Embassies seek Duterte help on kidnap

MARINA SECURITY Four days after the abduction of three foreigners and a Filipino woman, workers start to build a guardhouse at the marina of Holiday Oceanview Resort on Samal Island, Davao del Norte province. KARLOS MANLUPIG/INQUIRER MINDANAO

DAVAO CITY—The embassies of Canada and Norway have asked Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to “take a more proactive role” in the negotiations for the release of four persons abducted by armed men, believed to be Abu Sayyaf bandits, in a high-end marina in the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte province last week.

Duterte said he had talked with the Norwegian and Canadian ambassadors on Monday, who asked for his help in securing the freedom of the hostages. “And I said I have to establish my predicate first … before I could really talk to them (abductors),” he said.

Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, and Filipino Marites Flor were already taken to Sulu province and turned over to the Abu Sayyaf group there, the mayor earlier said. On Monday night, Duterte called on the abductors not to harm the hostages.

“I appeal to our Moro brothers, the Abu Sayyaf, because we are friends and you know me. Don’t hurt the victims. Feed them,” Duterte told reporters.

He said he had already contacted someone close to Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari, a known close friend of his, to help establish a link with the kidnappers. Misuari has been in hiding since two years ago, when MNLF members engaged government forces in a three-week battle when they laid siege to Zamboanga City.

The hostages, Duterte said, were turned over to an Abu Sayyaf group based in Talipao town. “I do not know if they are still there,” he said.

“Whether or not the people who kidnapped the foreigners here are regular Abu Sayyaf members, that I could not tell you. But they were passed on to a group that is known there as Abu Sayyaf or, at the very least, allied with the Abu Sayyaf,” the mayor said.

In Zamboanga City, Habib Hashim Mudjahab, who chairs the MNLF faction Islamic Command Council, said Duterte had established communication with Misuari. “Duterte coordinated directly with brother Nur,” he said.

He said the mayor’s camp also coordinated with him about the possible location of the victims.

Duterte said he was willing to go to Sulu to talk to the kidnappers, if needed. “I am doing it for my fellowmen and because I am from Mindanao. They know me because I am from Mindanao. In Davao, we have all the Moro tribes,” he added.

From what he had gathered, Mudjahab said, Misuari had already asked his ground commanders “to act on the request of Duterte.”

He said he had no direct knowledge of Duterte’s plan to travel to Sulu. “We are not aware of his coming down here. But if he’s really coming, we will secure him,” he said.

Mudjahab said MNLF forces had not confirmed the actual location of the victims, “but there are indicators.” He noted a “major” military operation in the areas of Omar and in Silangkan, a barangay in Parang town.

He asked the military to halt its offensive because this might endanger the lives of the hostages and the civilian population in the two areas.

“The MNLF members are [also] reinforcing the outer perimeter area of brother Nur to avoid a misencounter. There is an understanding that they will not attack the location of brother Nur, although we are aware that he has a pending warrant of arrest,” Mudjahab said.

Brig. Gen. Allan Arrojado, commander of the Joint Task Group Sulu, said “there was nothing new” in the reported military operations in Sulu, but he declined to elaborate. With a report from Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao