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Police in the Philippines said Wednesday that they had arrested three suspects in the kidnapping of an American in the country’s south and that they believe the victim, who was shot in the leg during the abduction, is still alive.
Two of the suspects in the Oct. 17 kidnapping of Elliot Onil Eastman, 26, in Sibuco town in Zamboanga del Norte province surrendered separately and pointed to a third suspect, who was arrested in Sibuco, police officials said.
Three other suspects, who may be holding Eastman, have been identified, police said, adding that more people could be involved. Criminal complaints of abduction were filed against the six suspects on Tuesday.
“We believe he is alive, so our operations are ongoing,” said regional police spokesperson Lt. Col. Helen Galvez. “Our search won’t stop until we locate him.”
A house-to-house search was underway in one unspecified area, Galvez said without elaborating. She added that the suspects belonged to a criminal group and not to any of the armed Muslim rebel groups, which have been blamed for a spate of ransom kidnappings in the southern Philippines over decades.
The kidnappers were armed with M16 rifles and disguised themselves as police officers. One of them shot Eastman in the leg when he tried to escape then dragged him to a motorboat and fled.
Two empty casings of M16 ammunition and blood stains were seen by investigators in Sibuco, where Eastman had been living for about five months before he was kidnapped, Galvez said.
Eastman, from Vermont, traveled out of the Philippines and recently returned to attend the graduation of his Filipino wife. He has been posting Facebook videos of his life in Sibuco, a remote and poor coastal town, where the suspects spotted him, Galvez said.
“He was confident. He was the only foreigner there,” according to Galvez.
Although authorities said the ransom kidnapping was isolated in the relatively peaceful region, it was a reminder of security problems that have long hounded the southern Philippines, the homeland of a Muslim minority in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com
