Zamboanga authorities had repeatedly warned American vlogger Elliot Onil to avoid the municipality of Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, due to ongoing abduction threats in the area, but he insisted on staying, police reported on Monday.
Lt. Col. Helen Galvez, spokesperson for the Zamboanga Peninsula Regional Police Office, said Onil was cautioned several times by local police before his abduction last Thursday, October 17. “Despite warnings from our local police that he should not stay in the area, he still insisted,” Galvez said during an interview with dwPM.
Onil, who had been vlogging in the area, was reportedly taken by four armed men posing as police officers. According to authorities, the men shot him in the leg when he resisted and forced him into a getaway boat, which fled to sea.
Galvez added that no proof of life has been detected so far, and Onil’s vlogging activities likely made him more vulnerable to abductors. “He kept on going back to the area while vlogging,” Galvez noted.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has since joined the search for the missing vlogger.
