Two nabbed in connection with Samal Island kidnap case

(UPDATED 8:33 p.m.) The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Davao City has arrested two suspects in connection with their possible involvement in the kidnapping of three foreigners and a Filipino woman from a Samal Island resort a few weeks ago, radio dzBB reported on Tuesday.

DzBB's Tuesday Niu cited multiple sources in the PNP and the CIDG in reporting that two suspects were nabbed in Davao City on Sunday night.

Chief Superintendent Federico Dulay, the head of the Special Investigation Task Group Oceaview, said the CCTV footage of the abduction instrumental in the police being able to make the arrests over the weekend.

One of the men was detained on unrelated charges of kidnapping and murder, while the other was carrying a gun and a grenade, said Superintendent Antonio Rivera, the police spokesman for the Davao region on the southern island of Mindanao.

Arrested together in Davao city on Sunday, the two are now being questioned over the September 21 abduction of the three Westerners and the Filipina from the island resort of Samal near Davao, Rivera told Agence France-Presse.

"We are looking at the (closed circuit) television footage of the resort kidnappings to see if the two did take part," Rivera added.

Canadian tourists John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50, as well as Hall's girlfriend Marites Flor and Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad, 56, were seen being dragged away by gunmen in a boat in chilling footage earlier released by police.

Rivera declined to identify the detained men or give further details of the first suspect's alleged crimes.

It is feared the hostages have been taken to the heavily-forested southern island of Jolo, a stronghold of Islamic militants more than 500 kilometres (311 miles) from Samal.

Jolo is the main base of the Abu Sayyaf, an Al-Qaeda-linked group blamed for the country's deadliest terror attacks, beheadings and kidnappings of foreign tourists and Christian missionaries.

No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions. Mindanao has been plagued for decades by Muslim and communist insurgencies.

The Abu Sayyaf are known to hold four foreigners -- a Dutchman, a South Korean and two Malaysians -- according to the Philippine military. —with Agence France-Presse/NB/JST, GMA News