Former Italian missionary kidnapped in southern Philippines

MANILA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - An Italian man, who was a former
missionary priest, has been abducted by armed men from his
restaurant in the southern Philippines, security officials said
on Thursday, the latest in a string of abductions targeting
foreigners in the south.
Small Islamist and communist rebel factions, as well as
criminal gangs, operate in the southern Mindanao region and
often snatch people in the hope ransoms will be paid. Police
said that was the most likely motive for the latest abduction.
Rolando del Torchio, 53, was taken at gunpoint after four
men entered his pizzeria in Dipolog City in the restive southern
region of Mindanao posing as customers, police said. They were
among a group of 10 abductors who dragged del Torchio into a
getaway van that was later found abandoned.
It was believed del Torchio was then transferred to a motor
boat that headed for southern coastal towns in Zamboanga del
Norte province, according to a police report.
Del Torchio had previously been targeted by kidnappers when
he spent five years in Sibuco town, south of Dipolog. He was a
missionary priest with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign
Missions there in the 1990s before he left the priesthood, said
Dipolog City police chief Rannie Hachuela.
The Philippine navy and air force were trying to intercept
the kidnappers, said Lieutenant Colonel Audie Mongao, an army
public affairs officer.
Senior police superintendent Romulo Cleve Taboso said
authorities were investigating whether the kidnappers belonged
to the same group that kidnapped a town chief in the area in
May. That group later turned their captive over to a bigger gang
in southern Sulu province.
Last month, gunmen kidnapped two Canadian tourists, a
Norwegian resort manager and a Filipino woman at a resort on
Samal island near Davao City, the largest city in Mindanao.
ID:nL4N11T1P8 ID:nL4N11S1NU