Abus issue ultimatum for Samal captives

MANILA, Philippines - Suspected Abu Sayyaf members have issued a one-month ultimatum to the families of three foreigners and a Filipina captive kidnapped in September last year on an island resort in Samal, Davao del Norte to meet their demands or they would execute the hostages.

In a video clip released on the social media site Facebook yesterday, the gunmen presented their three hostages – Canadians John Ridsel and Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and a Filipina identified as Maritess Flor.

“We are giving a warning for one month preparations for the families to meet the demand… We will still (hold) negotiations within one month, starting today March 8, 2016 to April 8, 2016. Then if your policy is better for you than the lives of the captives, certainly we will do something terrible against these captives,” said one of the Abu Sayyaf abductors surrounded by other gunmen, one of them holding a bolo to the neck of Ridsel.

This is the third time the bandits have released a video of the hostages. Last October, they came out in social media demanding a halt to military operations in Sulu before the start of negotiations for the freedom of the hostages.

This was followed in November when the group again released a video of their victims and demanded a P1-billion ransom for each of the foreign hostages.

In the video yesterday, the three foreigners, shirtless and looking weak, called on their respective families and governments to meet the ransom being demanded by their abductors.

“To my family… the Canadian Prime Minister and Canadian people of the world, please do what’s needed to meet their demand within one month or they would kill me and they will execute us,” said Ridsel.

Hall aired the same appeal. “I don’t know what is (ransom amount) but the Canadian government has got to get off a task to do what is necessary to get us soon, within a month before this happens,” he said.

For his part, Sekkingstad told his family, friends and authorities that this video message could be his last.