According to his LinkedIn page, Ridsel is the president of a mining company that is based in the Philippines.
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He previously worked for Petro Canada in Algeria, Burma and Pakistan.
According to a biography published when he first joined the paper, the London-born Ridsdel had spent five years as a reporter and producer with the CBC before joining the Herald as an energy writer. The Filipino woman was identified as Teresita Flor, The Canadian Press reported.
MALACAÑANG on Tuesday said the police (PNP) and the military are now tracing down the group of armed men that abducted four people – three of them foreign visitors -from a resort on Samal Island in Davao Del Norte.
The two Canadians were named as John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. Samuel Gandingan told government radio station DXRP in Davao City that three men armed with rifles entered the resort before midnight Monday.
Government officials conducted an air and water search around the Davao Gulf in the wake of the abduction, but very little concrete evidence as turned up.
Two Japanese nationals tried to intervene before the gunmen escaped with the hostages on a motorised boat fleeing towards the coast of Compostela Valley province situated across the island, Caber said.
Brig. Gen. Allan Arrojado later informed Anadolu Agency that the kidnappers spoke clear English and Tagalog and seemed to be specifically targeting the Norwegian, who was the manager of the resort.
They say they are still trying to get a grasp on what’s exactly going on and are unable to comment further. “We’re definitely concerned”, she added. “Stay home safe”, one social media user said on Twitter, posting a link to an article about the abduction. “It is heavily secured”.
No group has stepped forward to claim responsibility or demand a ransom.
“The majority of kidnappings in the Philippines are committed by criminal organizations and not by terrorist or insurgent groups”, Pacific Strategies and Assessments Philippines director Matt Williams told the Times.
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Abu Sayyaf militants are notorious for kidnapping foreigners and Filipinos for ransom in the vast Mindanao region.
