AFP validating report on 5 missing foreigners

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines is still validating reports that five foreigners went missing in Tawi-Tawi and Sabah waters.

“We are looking into this with keen interest and will seek to validate it as the soonest time and will release once data has been provided,”  Armed Forces public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said on Tuesday.

Peace adviser Jesus Dureza said that based on a report he received on Monday, the foreigners went missing and could have been kidnapped.

Malaysian authorities recovered an unmanned tugboat and a barge drifting off Lahad Datu.

Arevalo said the Western Mindanao Command is already aware of the report of the “possible abduction that occurred sometime in the last two days.”

Kidnappings of Indonesians have also been reported in the waters of southern Philippines by the Abu Sayyaf Group recently.