A Japanese man who went missing on a remote southern Philippine island may have been kidnapped, authorities said yesterday.
Amer Katayama Mamaito was last seen on Pangutaran island in the Sulu archipelago early on Friday, said Chief Inspector Amil Banaan, Sulu’s deputy police chief.
The area is a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants who have kidnapped foreign tourists and missionaries in the past. Police are investigating unverified reports that the man was escorted off the island by gunmen.
“Our forces are still out and searching for the foreigner. We still have no reports about his whereabouts,” Banaan said yesterday afternoon, more than 30 hours after the man’s reported disappearance.
It was unclear why Mamaito was in the area. The Sulu group is considered an Abu Sayyaf strongholds and is extremely dangerous for foreigners.
Regional military commander Lieutenant General Ben Dolorfino said there were suggestions the missing man is a treasure hunter.
“Our initial information is that he is engaged in treasure hunting and has been living there for the past five years,” Dolorfino said.
Authorities are treating the case as a potential abduction, said Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, the regional police chief.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of militants on the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, well known for staging kidnappings for ransom in the southern Philippines.
They abducted three Red Cross workers including two Europeans last year. All three were freed unharmed several months later amid speculation that ransom was paid.
In one of their most notorious acts, the Abu Sayyaf beheaded one of three American hostages they seized from a resort on Palawan island in 2001. One of the other hostages was killed during a rescue attempt a year later.
The group is also blamed for the 2004 bombing of a passenger ferry that killed over 100 people in Manila Bay.
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