Military still clueless on whereabouts of 4 Abu Sayyaf hostages

The military remains clueless on the whereabouts of the four hostages—three of them foreigners—of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, months after they were kidnapped in Davao del Norte.

"We have yet to pinpoint their whereabouts," said Maj. Filemon Tan, spokesperson for the Armed Forces' Western Mindanao Command, on Monday. "Our intelligence units are still trying to confirm if they are indeed in Sulu."

Last week, a video showing the hostages appealing for help circulated on the Internet. One of them, Kjartan Sekkingstad, a Norwegian, said they are being held in Sulu, a known bailiwick of the Abu Sayyaf, and that they will be executed if their respective governments will not give in to the Abu Sayyaf's ransom demand.

The Abu Sayyaf has demanded a P1-billion ransom for the release of each of the hostages.

Aside from Sekkingstad, the other hostages were John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, both Canadians, and Filipina Marites Flor. They were seized from the posh Holiday Oceanview resort in Samal Island on Sept. 21 last year.

Tan said Sekkingstad may have been ordered by his captors to say that they are in Sulu to deceive pursuing security forces.

"There is a chance that they are just misleading our troops because of continuing operations in Sulu," he said. "They could be using it (video) to tell us they are in Sulu when they are, for example, in Basilan."

Basilan is also a known stomping ground of the al Qaeda-linked terrorist group.

Tan said cyber forensic experts from the military are conducting investigation to determine when and where the video was taken and to establish the identities of the person or persons who uploaded the video on the Internet. —KBK, GMA News