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MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police said Wednesday they have arrested three suspects in the kidnapping of an American in the south of the country and believe the victim, who was shot in the leg during the kidnapping, is still alive. life.

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Two of the suspects in the October 17 kidnapping of Elliot Onil Eastman, 26, in Sibuco town, Zamboanga del Norte province, surrendered separately and named a third suspect, who was arrested in Sibuco, police officials said.

Three other suspects, who may be holding Eastman, have been identified, police said, adding that other people may be involved. Criminal complaints for kidnapping were filed Tuesday against the six suspects.

“We believe he is alive, so our operations continue,” regional police spokeswoman Lt. Col. Helen Galvez told The Associated Press by telephone. “Our search will not stop until we locate him.”

A house-to-house search was underway in an unspecified area, Galvez said without elaborating. She added that the suspects belonged to a criminal group and not to any of the armed Muslim rebel groups blamed for a series of kidnappings for ransom in the southern Philippines going back decades.

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The kidnappers were armed with M16 rifles and disguised themselves as police officers. One of them shot Eastman in the leg as he tried to escape, then dragged him to a motorboat and fled, according to initial police reports on the kidnapping seen by the AP, citing a witness.

Two spent M16 ammunition casings and bloodstains were seen by investigators in Sibuco, where Eastman had lived for about five months before his kidnapping, Galvez said.

Eastman, of Vermont, traveled outside the Philippines and recently returned to attend his Filipino wife’s graduation. He posted videos on Facebook of his life in Sibuco, a remote and poor coastal town, where the suspects spotted him, Galvez said.

“He was confident. He was the only foreigner there,” according to Galvez.

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Although authorities said the kidnapping for ransom was isolated in a relatively peaceful region, it is a reminder of the security problems that have long plagued the southern Philippines, home to a Muslim minority in the largely Catholic country.

The southern third of the Philippines has abundant resources, but it has long been crippled by extreme poverty and a multitude of insurgents and outlaws.

A peace deal signed in 2014 between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest of several Muslim separatist groups, significantly eased widespread fighting in the south. Relentless military offensives have weakened small armed groups like the violent Abu Sayyaf group over the years, significantly reducing kidnappings, bombings and other attacks.

The Abu Sayyaf group had targeted American and Western tourists and religious missionaries, most of whom were released after paying ransoms. A few were killed, including American Guillermo Sobero, beheaded in the island province of Basilan, and American missionary Martin Burnham, killed as Philippine military forces tried to rescue him and his wife, Gracia Burnham, in 2002. in a tropical forest in the town of Sirawai, near Sibuco.

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