We were up early and had the complimentary breakfast at Precious Garden Resort and Hotel. We left about 7:30am and stopped at the nearby Central Convenience (2C) store and loaded up on ice for the cooler, drinks, and a few snacks before heading to Holiday Oceanview Marina.
As we approached the entrance to Holiday Oceanview Marina it was very apparent something was going on. Instead of just the private security guard at the entrance, there were many Philippine Army troops at the gate carrying machine guns. We inquired as to what was happening and the private security guard only divulged that an "incident" had occurred and advised us to leave; he suggested we come back later in the week. I politely and very firmly stated our yacht Indra was in the marina and we were NOT leaving - he reluctantly let us into the marina compound after Marilyn talked with him in the local Visayan language.
As we drove down the hillside road and approached the marina office building we saw more Philippine Army troops and their trucks, police, and a host of other vehicles and people not normally at the marina. Instead of parking in front of the marina office building, we parked our Ford Ranger truck right in front of Indra. As we got out of the truck, I asked Marilyn to inquire at the marina office and find out what was going on. Mary Ann and I remained at the boat, climbed aboard, and opened all the hatches and port windows to air out the boat.
It was not very long before Marilyn returned and she appeared quite distressed. She nervously stated we needed to leave right NOW and return to Cebu, it was NOT SAFE here. She eventually calmed down enough to relay that last night after we had left to the hotel, a armed terrorist group invaded the marina and took four people hostage. Due to her emotional state she could not provide any specific details. I reassured her that due to the large military and police force presence here now, that we were probably in the safest place in the Philippines. I got her and Mary Ann some cold drinks out of the cooler and told them to stay aboard Indra while I attempted to get more information about what had happened.
I walk around the hard stands, the marina office building, and docks and had short conversations with quite a few of the Filipinos and foreigner cruisers present. It appears two security guards armed with 38 caliber revolvers were on duty and located at the main entrance gate guard shack when the incident occurred. Most of the foreigner cruisers knew very little about what happened, but were "now" very concerned for their own safety and security. Quite a few had been aboard their boats asleep and were totally unaware of what happened until after the terrorist group had departed. The estimated 10 armed kidnappers had come and left by two boats, using the marina seawall barrier as their landing and entry point. The estimated time of their entry into the marina was just after 11:00pm, about three hours after we had left for the hotel.
Discovered the folks that were kidnapped were Canadian John Ridsdel of catamaran Azizah de Niamkoko, Canadian Robert Hall and Filipina girlfriend Marites Flor of yacht Renova, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad of yacht Wiskun. An American Steven Tripp and Japanese wife Kazuko Shibata-Tripp of yacht Outstripp had struggled with the kidnappers but jump overboard into the water off their boat to avoid being taken. We were only familiar with Kjartan as we had just met him the day prior. The military and police that I talked to stated that they were mobilized and conducting searches on land, sea, and air. The marina managers and owners present stated they were going to have a meeting with all boat residents tomorrow.
This incident was widely reported on and published in the news media:
Canadians kidnapped in the Philippines: Here’s what you need to know
Brazen abduction shakes up quiet, luxurious Philippines island
Samal resort owners urged: Boost security, let police in
I returned to Marilyn and Mary Ann aboard Indra and informed them of what little I had learned and the marina meeting scheduled for tomorrow. I let her know that due to the loss of Kjartan, the marina yard manager, the possibility of getting Indra moved to its planned permanent location on the hard stand was not likely to happen anytime soon - the marina Filipino work force were currently sitting idle in their boat hanger building as no one was around to supervise them and tell them what to do. We agreed to remain through the week and if Indra was unable to be moved, we would depart on the weekend. We considered ourselves very lucky that we had left the marina yesterday shortly before this attack had happened - someone upstairs was definitely watching over us.
Next I informed her of some of the "things" that just didn't add up about the kidnapping. Top of the list was how this group entered the marina, knew where to go, grab folks, and make their get away in less than 30 minutes. How it was very strange that the local security guards were not in the marina/boat compound area on a walk through inspection but at the furthest point away at the entrance on the main road - left the impression of an inside accomplice or excellent intel foresight on their walk through schedules. How no alarm was raised by any of the yachties present that heard something - some of these yachties are ex-military and should have been familiar with the first basic protocol of sounding an alert. Even after the kidnappers had left no general alarm was raised - two of the yachties I talked to that morning had just woken up and weren't even aware yet of what happened.
As to why Holiday Oceanview Marina with local armed security guards was chosen by the kidnappers instead of the 50-plus other island resorts without or minimal security guards bugged me. I naively believe they chose Holiday Oceanview Marina to make a political anti-government statement besides kidnapping for potential ransom rewards. Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III had just recently held a public ceremony at Holiday Oceanview Marina on 9 September 2015 to recognize the newly completed roadways and provide prestige to the Holiday Business Group efforts at building the Holiday Oceanview Marina and Resort complex and Rodrigo Duterte mayor of nearby Davao City was a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections - embarrassment of two political bigwigs and a large business consortium with one stone's throw.
Inside Indra we started going through the numerous drawers and cabinets deciding what stays and what gets tossed out.
I went forward into the v-berth and removed the numerous pillows and mattress. The v-berth storage area had wood lattice pieces to provide airflow to the mattress; they were removed along with the white plywood cover boards. The chain locker and a storage compartment filled mostly with ropes lay exposed - started inventorying the contents.
Both Marilyn and Mary Ann kinda enjoyed going through the many colorful books even though most had a very noticeably moldy smell - most books were removed and put in the HOV marina building bookshelf area for other cruisers to use.
Another let down for the day was discovered in the desk's map storage area, hidden between the maps, found an inspection report that revealed Indra had prior issues with deck and cabin rot. We found a receipt for some of the work done on these discrepancies but got the impression all the work was not accomplished yet.
We left Holiday Oceanview Marina about 17:00pm and returned to Precious Garden Resort and Hotel. Mary Ann had another cheese pizza, Marilyn had a pasta dish, and I had lasagna and tempura fried shrimps for dinner. The days revelations and activities had dampened all of our preconceived enthusiasms about this trip.
