Philippine police arrest suspects in US kidnapping

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MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police on Wednesday arrested three suspects in the kidnapping of an American in the south of the country and believe the victim, who was shot in the leg during the kidnapping, is still alive.

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Two of the suspects in the Oct. 17 kidnapping of 26-year-old Elliot Onil Eastman in Sibuco town in Zamboanga del Norte province surrendered separately and pointed to a third suspect arrested in Sibuco, police officials said.

Three other suspects believed to be holding Eastman have been identified, police said, adding that more people may be involved. Criminal complaints for kidnapping were filed against the six suspects on Tuesday.

“We believe he is still alive, so our operations continue,” regional police spokesperson Lt. Col. Helen Galvez told The Associated Press by telephone. “Our search won’t end until we find him.”

A house-to-house search was conducted in an unspecified area, Galvez said, without elaborating. She added that the suspects belonged to a criminal group and not one of the armed Islamist rebel groups, which have been responsible for a wave of ransom kidnappings in the southern Philippines for decades.

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The kidnappers were armed with M16 rifles and disguised themselves as police officers. One of them shot Eastman in the leg as he tried to escape, then dragged him to a motorboat and fled, according to the initial police reports of the kidnapping seen by the AP, citing a witness.

Two spent shell casings containing M16 ammunition and bloodstains were seen by investigators in Sibuco, where Eastman lived for about five months before he was kidnapped, Galvez said.

Eastman, from Vermont, traveled from the Philippines and recently returned to attend his Filipino wife’s graduation ceremony. He posted Facebook videos of his life in Sibuco, a remote and poor coastal town, where the suspects saw him, Galvez said.

“He was confident. He was the only foreigner there,” Galvez said.

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While authorities said the ransom kidnapping occurred isolated in the relatively peaceful region, it was a reminder of security problems that have long dogged the southern Philippines, home to a Muslim minority in the largely Roman Catholic country.

The southern third of the Philippines has abundant resources but has long been crippled by abject poverty and a slew of insurgents and bandits.

A 2014 peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest of several Islamist separatist groups, has significantly eased widespread fighting in the south. Relentless military offensives over the years have weakened smaller armed groups such as the violent Abu Sayyaf group, significantly reducing the number of kidnappings, bombings and other attacks.

The Abu Sayyaf group targeted American and other Western tourists and religious missionaries, most of whom were released after ransoms were paid. Several were killed, including an American, Guillermo Sobero, who was beheaded in the island province of Basilan, and an American missionary, Martin Burnham, who was killed while Philippine forces tried to rescue him and his wife, Gracia Burnham, in 2002. in a rainforest in the town of Sirawai, near Sibuco.

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