Manila (UCAN): Retired army Major-General Jovito Palparan, a decorated Philippine Army veteran, was sentenced to life in prison on September 17 for the “kidnapping and illegal detention” of two university students who went missing in 2006.
 
The Malolos Regional Trial Court found Palaparan guilty of kidnapping university students, Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.
 

SEOUL (UCAN): An American student, David Sneddon, who went missing while hiking in China is believed to still be in North Korea and still alive by Choi Sung-ryong, a Seoul-based representative of the families of people abducted to North Korea.

Choi said he has information on the Sneddon’s whereabouts.

MANILA (Agencies): Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga has condemned the beheading of a Canadian tourist held hostage for months by the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao.

The bishop, who chairs the bishops’ Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People, expressed outrage over the execution of a 68-year old Canadian man, John Ridsdel, who was abducted from a resort along with three others in September last year.

MANILA (SE): Waning Abdulsalam, suspected to have been the leader of a group that has kidnapped foreigners for ransom, was killed by a joint police and military operation when he resisted arrest in Zamboanga Sibugay on March 13.

He was also suspected of being a member of the Abu Sayyaf and the leader of the group that kidnapped Columban Father Mick Sinnott from his home in Pagadian in 2009 (Sunday Examiner, 8 November 2009).