A spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada said Friday the government was aware of the video but could not comment or release any information that might “compromise ongoing efforts or endanger the safety of Canadian citizens.”

Ridsdel, Hall, Hall’s Filipina companion Marites Flor, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, were taken hostage Sept. 21 when gunmen stormed the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort off the southern coast of Mindanao. Sekkingstad is the resort’s manager.

The four previously have appeared in videos saying their captors were demanding one billion pesos.

The hostages appeared in Friday’s video sitting on the ground in a wooded area surrounded by heavily armed captors, who were clad in dark or camouflage clothing. Some wore masks.

With the exception of Flor, the hostages took turns reciting similar messages.

“I appeal to my family, the Philippine government, and the Canadian government,” Hall said. “My specific appeal is to the Canadian government who I know has the capacity to get us out of here. I wonder what they are waiting for.”

One of the masked captors then tells the camera that the “deadline of warning is over,” referring to a previous deadline that had not been met.

“Still, you procrastinate. So now this is already an ultimatum. Once you don’t meet the demand, we will certainly behead one amongst this four.”

The kidnappers clearly are trying to exert psychological pressure to coerce higher ransoms, said Zachary Abuza, a southeast Asian security expert at National War College in Washington, D.C.

“Each video I’ve seen, (the hostages) are weaker and weaker,” he said.

Formed in the early 1990s with funding from al-Qaida, Abu Sayyaf is a collection of autonomous gangs spread across the jungles of the Sulu Archipelago with poor communications and no centralized leadership.

They appear to be taking a page from ISIL’s playbook by posting these staged videos and using social media, Abuza said. However, there is no evidence the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant controls the groups or provides any resources, he said.

Recently, Abu Sayyaf militants took hostage four Malaysian crew members of a tugboat and posted their pictures on Facebook.

Public Safety Canada listed Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group in 2003. The government says Abu Sayyaf uses terrorism primarily for profit and kidnap-for-ransom is among the group’s “favoured tactics.”