Police have recovered Ridsdel’s head, which was dumped by the militants in Sulu’s Jolo town.
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The prime minister also told reporters in Alberta that media reports suggesting he and senior ministers were involved in negotiating with Abu Sayyaf, the terror group that killed Canadian hostage John Ridsdel in the Philippines Monday, are “wrong and they are false”.
Trudeau said he spoke Tuesday with British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose country adheres to the same no-ransom policy as Canada, and they agreed to press others to do the same.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said they would bring the killers to justice.
“This was an act of cold-blooded murder and responsibility rests with the terrorist group who took him hostage”, Trudeau said in Ottawa.
“Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists”.
Senior Superintendent Wilfredo Cayat, Sulu police director, said the headless body of a male person was found around 8 a.m. Wednesday at Sitio Tibangao in the village of Gata, Talipao, Sulu.
Efforts, however, were continuing to try to secure the release of three others, including another Canadian national, he said.
In the most recent video, Ridsdel, a retiree aged in his late 60s, said he would be killed on April 25 if a ransom of 300 million pesos was not paid.
Trudeau said his government will work with Philippine authorities and worldwide partners in pursuing those responsible for the heinous act.
Western hostages previously held by Abu Sayyaf, including two German yachters, an Italian priest and an Australian living in the Philippines, were released after ransoms were reportedly paid but not publicised.
The Abu Sayyaf militants are thought to be holding a number of captives, including 14 Indonesian and four Malaysian crewmen who were abducted at gunpoint from three tugboats starting last month off Tawi-Tawi in the southern Philippines waters near Sabah border.
“He could bridge many communities, many people, many situations and circumstances and environments in a very gentle way”, said Gerald Thurston, a lifelong friend of the former mining executive and journalist who grew up with him in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
Amid speculation about whether the government might pay ransom to release Hall and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, whom a government official confirmed is a permanent resident of Canada, Trudeau said he wanted “to make one thing perfectly, crystal clear”.
Mr Aquino said he sent a letter expressing condolences to Mr Ridsdel’s family, describing his death as appalling.
The abductions highlight the long and ongoing security problems in the southern Philippines, a resource-rich region that is gripped by poverty, lawlessness and decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies.
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The Abu Sayyaf’s leaders have recently declared allegiance to the Islamic State group that is causing carnage in the Middle East and has carried out deadly attacks in Europe.
