MANILA, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman for the Philippine military said on Monday that Filipinos found a bullet-ridden body of a woman on a yacht flying a German flag.
Army Maj. Filemon Tan said the body of a female victim in her 50s was found on the floor of the yacht with the markings "ROCK ALL" on Sunday near Laparan Island in Pangutaran of Sulu province.
"The cadaver was found to have had gunshot wounds and a gun was found beside the body," Tan said in a statement.
He added that the woman's body was naked when found and had bruises on her face. Tan floated the possibility that she was also raped.
Tan said that the military was also verifying reports that a 70-year-old German man had been abducted by the Abu Sayyaf bandits.
A man who claimed to be a spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf militants told the widely-circulated newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer that they had kidnapped a German man identified as Juegen Kantner, 70, in Tanjong Luuk in Tawi-Tawi.
The man also claimed that they had killed the victim's female companion named "Sabrina" because she tried to shoot them.
The alleged kidnap victim told the Inquirer, "Pirates took our boat. We (ask) the (German) Embassy to help us."
Tan said the military is "currently validating the veracity of the reports that the body belonged to the alleged companion of Kantner identified as Sabrina Wetch."
Tan said the yacht was hijacked off the waters of Tanjong Luuk, Sabah in Malaysia and not Tawi-Tawi as claimed by the alleged criminals in an interview with the Inquirer. The yacht is now in Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi, an island province in the southernmost Philippines.
