Still no word on kidnapped Australian

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – The fate of an Australian man seized from his house in a subdivision in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay last Dec. 5 is still unknown.

This, as reports of the body of a supposedly Caucasian-looking man found a day after the kidnapping of Australian Warren Richard Rodwell sent police investigators scurrying to Payao town.

The body of the man with gunshot wounds in the neck and back of the head was found in Sitio San Antonio, Barangay Labatan in Payao town.

On orders of the village head, the body though was buried a day later in the absence of any claimants.

Learning about this, probers rushed to Payao and exhumed the body. The man, however, turned out to be only five-foot, five-inch tall and could just be a local, they noted.

The military said the search for Rodwell has been widened to include Basilan and the Zamboanga Peninsula.