An American man living in the Philippines was shot and abducted from his home by armed men late on Thursday, according to the local authorities, who said on Friday that they were pursuing the kidnappers.
The man, Elliot Onil Eastman, 26, of Vermont, was abducted from Sibuco, a coastal town on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. His kidnapping was reported by his father-in-law, AbdulMali Hamsiran Jala, who told the police that four men who were wearing black pants, shirts and face covers forcibly entered Mr. Eastman’s house in the Zamboanga del Norte Province.
Falsely introducing themselves as police officers, the men attempted to take Mr. Eastman, who resisted and ran before being shot in the leg with a rifle, the police said. The men put him on a white boat and headed out to sea, according to the police, with the authorities from several Filipino law enforcement agencies launching a “hot pursuit operation” to find the kidnappers.
The identities of the kidnappers were not known, Robert Agda, information chief of the police provincial office, said in a call on Friday.
Mr. Eastman had been living in the Philippines since May, the local authorities said. He first came to the country a year earlier, when he met his wife, Karisha Jala Eastman. They married in July 2023, and Mr. Eastman returned to the United States for work, before traveling back to the Philippines this year.
He shared videos of his life in the Philippines on a YouTube channel that appeared to belong to him. The videos, Mr. Eastman said, speaking of the municipality where he lived, intended to show his “day to day life as the first and only foreigner to have ever lived here in Sibuco for a long period of time.” Along with sharing moments of a quiet life on the beach, he often referenced the reputation of coastal Mindanao as being dangerous for foreign travelers in the titles of his videos.
The frequency of abductions in the area has lessened in the past decade as militant groups have weakened, but the United States is among several governments that advise caution while traveling in the region. Filipino military officials have blamed insurgent groups for organizing the kidnappings of foreign citizens in the southern Philippines.
The U.S. State Department has warned citizens to reconsider travel to the island of Mindanao and to avoid travel to the nearby Sulu Archipelago, citing the risk of crime, terrorism, civil unrest and kidnapping. Terrorists and armed groups in the area have kidnapped foreign citizens for ransom on both land and sea, it said in its travel advisory.
A representative for the State Department said in an email on Friday that it was aware of the reports of Mr. Eastman’s kidnapping and was coordinating with the local authorities. The department said it did not comment on details of potential kidnappings while investigations were underway but said that it had “no greater priority than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad.”
In its travel advisory, the U.S. government said it had a “limited ability” to give emergency services to American citizens on parts of Mindanao because officials require special authorization to travel in the region.
In 2009, three workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross were abducted in the Sulu Archipelago. In 2019, a British man, Allan Arthur Hyrons, and his wife, Welma Paglinawan-Hyrons, were rescued after their abduction.
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