MANILA, Philippines - Police forensic experts are trying to determine if the headless body of a Caucasian man that was found by villagers in the southern Philippines was that of a Canadian hostage who was beheaded by Muslim militant earlier this week.
John Ridsdel, 68, was beheaded after the Abu Sayyaf did not receive a large ransom it had demanded by a Monday deadline.
Fellow Canadian Robert Hall, a Norwegian and a Filipino woman who were kidnapped with Ridsdel from a southern Philippines marina in September are still being held by the militants, along with about 20 other foreign hostages.
President Benigno Aquino III says that the Abu Sayyaf militants who beheaded Ridsdel may have plotted to kill him and kidnap boxing star Manny Pacquiao.
Aquino says the militants also wanted to explode bombs in metropolitan Manila to try to get funding from the Islamic State group but the plans were uncovered and troops have reduced the group's ability to inflict harm.
Aquino, whose six-year term ends in June, says he sent a letter expressing condolences to Ridsdel's family, describing his death as appalling.
