Authorities have admitted that they knew about a possible kidnapping on Samal Island via intelligence that appears to have been ignored.
Information about Abu Sayyaf was intercepted and a known plot to kidnap foreigners in Samal Island was being circulated within the intelligence community as early as June.
Professor Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, said the abduction of three foreigners and a Filipino woman could have been prevented.
Senior Superintendent Robert Fajardo of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group told GMA News that his unit had received information on Abu Sayyaf planned to kidnap foreigners from Samal Island. He said they were informed to build-up security within the region, which appears to not have happened.
It is now also known that the Armed Forces of the Philippines also confirmed they received the same information.
The Armed Forces also noted that the information was ‘only raw information,’ but it appears in the end that so called ‘raw’ information was about as real as it gets.
The Armed Forces are now saying that a ‘civilian group’, somehow connected to Abu Sayyaf, was behind the kidnapping.
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