Gunmen kidnap Italian restaurant owner in southern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Gunmen abducted an Italian restaurant owner and former Roman Catholic missionary in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, just a few weeks after the kidnapping of four people — including two Canadians — by suspected Muslim militants in the restive region, police said.

At least six men, some armed with rifles, dragged Rolando del Torchio from his pizza restaurant into a van and then transferred to two motor boats and fled under cover of darkness from Dipolog City in Zamboanga del Norte province, city police chief Superintendent Ranie Hachuela said.

Police tried to pursue the kidnappers at sea, Hachuela said. He said security cameras caught the images of some of the gunmen and that may help authorities identify the abductors.

A provincial safety officer, Mary Anne Sabanal, said the van used by the kidnappers was found abandoned on the seaside boulevard where they got off and moved to the motor boats. She said del Torchio was a retired Catholic missionary who opened a restaurant near a college campus in Dipolog city.

“Authorities here have been on alert for possible kidnappings,” Sabanal said. But she said fishermen in a coastal village failed to alert the police when they saw unfamiliar motor boats carrying the kidnappers.

Last month, gunmen kidnapped two Canadian tourists, a Norwegian and a Filipino woman from an upscale marina on Samal Island in Davao del Norte province, also in the south. Among the suspects were Abu Sayyaf militants, who are notorious for kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and bombings.

Long-running security problems have hounded the region, which has bountiful resources and promises but is hamstrung by poverty and an array of insurgents and outlaws.

In the kidnappings in September, at least 11 men armed with pistols and two rifles arrived on two motorboats and entered the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort on Samal Island off Davao City, military and police officials have said.

Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and a Filipino woman, Teresita Flor were taken, as was Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, who was the resort’s marina manager.