AFP 'analyzing' video of Samal hostages, still uncertain who kidnappers are

From InterAksyon (Oct 14): AFP 'analyzing' video of Samal hostages, still uncertain who kidnappers are



The Armed Forces of the Philippines said Wednesday it is still analyzing the video, posted on the Internet, showing the three foreigners and Filipina kidnapped from Samal Island last month although it called the apparent good health of the hostages “positive.”

Aside from this, AFP spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla said very little at a press briefing, saying they “cannot divulge operational details and discuss way ahead recommendations that may put in jeopardy the lives of the kidnap victims as well as others on the ground.”

Padilla also refused to say where the Samal hostages as well as Italian Rolando del Torchio, who was abducted in Dipolog City, are possibly being held.

Earlier, intelligence sources said Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Hall’s Filipina girlfriend Marites Flor, and Norwegian resort owner Kjartan Sekkingstad were seized by the Abu Sayyaf and taken straight to Sulu where they are supposedly being guarded by 200 gunmen.

On the other hand, reports say Del Torchio was allegedly seized by a band of Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters.

The video shows the hostages sitting on the ground surrounded by masked gunmen, one of them held by the head by a man wielding a knife, with banners similar to that used by the Islamic State in the background.

In it, the three foreigners appeal to the Canadian and Philippine governments for help and to stop militar operations, including artillery barrages.

“The positive thing that we derived from this video is that the kidnap victims are in good health … and that is as far as we are concerned, part of the good news that we got out of it,” Padilla said.

However, Padilla said the video was not enough to identify the Samal hostages’ captors or Del Torchio’s kidnappers.

“Mahirap pa pong pangalanan kung anong grupo ang nasa (likod) ng mga isinagawang krimen na ito,” Padilla said, adding this would depend on the what analysts learn from the video. 

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/118919/afp-analyzing-video-of-samal-hostages-still-uncertain-who-kidnappers-are