Philippine military still verifying reports of beheading of Canadian hostage

The Philippine military is verifying reports that Abu Sayyaf Group beheaded Monday afternoon another Canadian hostage after multi-million peso ransom was not paid, a senior government official said.

"AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is verifying," Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. told reporters when asked to confirm reports of the beheading of Robert Hall.

The bandits reportedly pushed with the killing of Hall in southern Philippine province of Sulu after the 3:00 p.m. local time deadline to pay ransom expired.

Prior to the deadline, Coloma said the government has not wavered in its determination to deal with the kidnap-for-ransom problem.

"Our focused military and law enforcement operations continue without let up with the objective of rescuing the hostages and holding their captors accountable for all their crimes," he said in a statement.

He did not mention about the possibility of giving in to the ransom demand of the Abu Sayyaf. It has been the government's policy not to pay ransom to the kidnappers.

In April, Canadian mining executive John Ridsdel was beheaded by the group as the government did not pay ransom.

Hall and Ridsdel were among the four hostages taken by the Abu Sayyaf Group in a resort in Samal Island, Davao del Norte in September last year.

The other two were Norwegian national Kjartan Sekkingstad and female Filipino Marites Flor.

The Group reportedly asked ransom of 300 million pesos (6.51 million U.S. dollars) for each hostage.

The Abu Sayyaf Group, founded in the early 1990s by Islamic extremists, is operating in southern Philippines and notorious for a series of kidnappings, bombings and beheadings over the decades. Endit