Philippine military validating reported kidnapping off Malaysia

The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday said it is validating another reported kidnapping off Sabah.

"[We] are validating if true at all na may abduction," military spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla told GMA News Online.

Agence France-Presse reported that according to Wan Abdul Bari Abdul Khalid, head of Malaysia's Eastern Sabah Security Command, three people on board a Malaysian-registered fishing boat were kidnapped off Pom Pom Island, a popular scuba diving location in Sabah.

The report said that Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi told the New Strait Times that a kidnap-for-ransom group that operates near Mindanao was responsible for the latest abduction.

"The kidnap-for-ransom group operates near the southern Philippines, near Malaysian islands, and although the authorities monitor the waters closely, this group moves under the radar," the official was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times. —Joseph Tristan Roxas/ALG, GMA News