Two of the suspects who took part in the abduction of three foreigners and one Filipina in the Holiday Oceanview Resort in the Island Garden City of Samal on September 21 have already been identified. One of them was said to have been arrested by the authorities.
This was the revelation made by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte Monday afternoon after attending the founding anniversary of Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
The mayor released the information amidst the continued refusal of the Special Investigation Task Group Oceanview to release any update regarding their probe on the incident.
For the past two weeks, SITG Oceanview had only released one official update on their ongoing probe and had been tight-lipped since then.
Mayor Duterte identified one of the arrested suspects as Bandajar Adona alias Banon. He said the suspect was positively identified thru the CCTV footage retrieved by the authorities during the kidnapping incident.
Duterte however refused to give further details saying that he is not in authority to speak. The mayor however admitted being privy to the information as he attended the briefing by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in relation to the Samal kidnapping.
It can be recalled that it was Duterte who revealed that the kidnappers and their victims are already in Sulu just as the SITG Oceanview kept on insisting that the culprits are still within the Eastern Mindanao.
Duterte also revealed that the kidnappers could be Abu Sayyaf Group or their affiliates while the SITG said it could be the handiwork of the New People’s Army rebels based on the note left by the kidnappers which claimed that they are NPAs.
Efforts to confirm Duterte’s latest revelation from the police and the military proved futile as of this posting.