philippines – Houghton STAR

On Monday, April 25, Canadian hostage, John Risdsel, was executed in the Philippines by Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf.

Risdsel’s severed head appeared on the remote island of Jolo Monday, just five hours after a ransom deadline set by the militants had expired. According to Reuters, the group demanded 600 million pecos ($6.4 million) for each of the captives and threatened to behead one of their four captives if the deadline was not met. Locals reported seeing two men on a motorcycle drop off a plastic bag that contained the head in the center of town and then fled.

Dani RGB Risdsel was one of three captives who were taken from the Oceanview Resort on Samal Island in the Philippines on September 21, 2015. The captive group was made up of Risdsel; fellow Canadian, Robert Hall; Hall’s girlfriend and Filipino native, Marites Flor; and Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad. According to CNN, this part of the Southern Philippines is home to the militant group, who has been linked to both al Qaeda and ISIS. CNN reported, this is not the first time the group has taken foreigners as hostages. In recent years the group has preyed on tourists, taking them hostage in an attempt to “further its aims.” The Philippine government, however, denounced the group as a terrorist organization, claiming they operate more like a criminal gang.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the group is also believed to have other captives including “a Dutch man, a Japanese and a group of Malaysian and Indonesian seamen.” The group abducted the Malaysian and Indonesian seamen at gunpoint from tugboats at the beginning of last month. In November, the group beheaded a Malaysian hostage on the same day that the Malaysian prime minister was scheduled to arrive in Manila for a summit.

Last month the group released a video of the hostages appearing to beg for their lives, and for the government and their families to secure their release. It is in this video that the threat was made to harm one of the captives if the group’s demands were not met. Bob Rae, a close friend of Risdsel’s, was quoted in a CNN article as saying “lots of effort” was made to comply with the demands, but the amount of money requested was simply too high. In the video heavily armed militants can be seen standing behind the hostages with large black flags hanging behind them.

The 68 year old Canadian native was a former chief mining officer of a mining company, described as “semi-retired” in a BBC news story, who also worked as a journalist. Justin Trudeau, Canadian prime minister, was quoted as stating Risdsel was killed in “cold blooded murder” by the group. He also said Canada would work with the Philippines and other international forces to bring justice to Risdsel’s death. Rae said in BBC article, ““It’s just very hard. I’ve been involved behind the scenes for the last six months trying to find a solution and it’s been very painful.”

In the week following the impact of the deadly Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines has struggled to recover from the aftermath. The typhoon left, at current estimates, more than 2,300 dead, with many more injured or displaced, and flattened major population centers. Haiyan made impact on the Philippines on November 7. According to statements made by the UN, a total of 11 million people have been affected by the storm.

The typhoon has thrown the country into disarray, prompting officials to declare a state of crisis. Looting and raiding have become commonplace in the affected areas which are mostly in the central Philippine islands. According to CBS, thousands of desperate Filipinos stormed a government-owned rice warehouse (an event that killed eight people) and made off with roughly 100,000 sacks of rice to feed themselves and their families. Access to clean water is also hard to obtain for the survivors. Reports say that people have dug up water pipelines, regardless of safety, in order to access drinking water. Shelter is also scarce and many have been forced to live in the open.

typhoon_haiyan_houses — Courtesy of http://l.yimg.com/

According to a report covered by Al-Jazeera America, another major obstacle facing the Filipino population in coming weeks is the lack of basic medical supplies and facilities. The storm damaged hospitals and interrupted the supply of medicine due to damaged infrastructure, leaving only scanty resources behind. In Tacloban, a city about 360 miles from Manila and one of the major sites of destruction, the current medical center is a run-down, single-story building at the city’s damaged airport. Along with treating pregnant women, children, elderly, and those with injuries from the storm, medics expect to be treating infections, pneumonia, diarrhea, and dehydration in the coming weeks as the effects of the storm and lack of clean water and food take their toll on the population.

Meanwhile, aid to the struggling country has been trickling in slowly, mostly due to damaged infrastructure. The first sign of international assistance appeared Wednesday with 25 tons of biscuits delivered by US military jets. More aid is expected to come to the Philippines soon, but it may take a while to distribute to the more inaccessible areas on the islands. The damaged roads from the storm are a problem. Looting and lack of order is also making the process difficult. A report from The Guardian said that a Philippine Red Cross convoy was attacked by armed men and its drivers were killed.

Typhoon Haiyan is one of the deadliest typhoons ever recorded in Philippine history. The typhoon, which a mature tropical cyclone, arose from the lower Pacific (near Micronesia) and made its way to the Philippine islands in about three days, making landfall in the country on November 7. At its peak, its winds were 195 mph. A few days later it receded in intensity on November 10 when it struck Vietnam as a severe tropical storm.

The American Red Cross and other aid organizations are currently accepting donations to help aid the Filipino people as they begin the process of recovery from this disaster.