Family: Beheaded Canadian loved the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Canadian Robert Hall, who was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf Group, loved everything about the Philippines which he considers his home.

Hall had been held hostage by the militant group and September 2015 and was beheaded earlier this week after a deadline for ransom payment passed.

RELATED: Family of beheaded Canadian backs no ransom policy

"He loved everything about the Philippines. The people, he said, are warm and gracious. He took an active interest in his community and his neighbors, and coached a local soccer team," the Hall family said in a statement.

After retirement, Hall used his years of experience, many technical and artistic skills, to become a consultant.

The Canadian traveled the world through his consulting from Chile to China, Australia and Thailand. He discovered the Philippines in one of his trips and decided to live in the country.

"He was resolved to live there, to sail across the Pacific, with or without company, and make his home in what he called his paradise on earth," the family said.

Hall lived in Davao City which his family described as "one of the safest places in South East Asia."

"With its mild weather, friendly people and in the company of other expats, he knew that he had found his home," the Hall family said.

Macleans, a Canadian publication, described Hall as a "lifelong dreamer" who sold all his possessions to live in the Philippines and be closer to his Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor, who was similarly captured by the Abu Sayyaf and held hostage.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Canadian flag in the Peace Tower in Ottawa, lowered over the weekend for the victims of the massacre in Orlando, said that it "flies lowered yet for another sad event"—Hall's death.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted that the government would not pay ransom for hostages by the Abu Sayyaf, a terror group based in southern Philippines. In this photo, Trudeau holds a news conference in Shima, Japan on Friday, May 27, 2016., following the G7 Summit. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP

The relatives of the victim said that they agree with Trudeau's policy of not paying ransom to hostage takers who seek to undermine fundamental values wit which Hall lived his life.

"We stand with the ideals that built this Country; strength of character, resilience of spirit, and refusal to succumb to the demands of the wretched, in order to satisfy the bloodlust of the weak," the statement read.

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