MILF fighters told to rescue Irish priest

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas in Lanao del Norte were ordered yesterday to rescue kidnapped Catholic priest Michael Sinnott.

In a statement sent via e-mail, MILF leader Al-Haj Murad said all “conscience-guided people and those with true faith in God” were asked to help free Sinnott.

“As a matter of policy, the MILF is obliged to exert its best effort to help work out the safe and immediate recovery of Father Sinnott,” he said.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters in Central Mindanao they have already identified the captors of Sinnott.

However, he could not reveal their names pending the MILF’s rescue operation, he added.

Murad said they have been receiving persistent information that Sinnott is being held captive somewhere at the tri-boundaries of Sultan Naga Dimaporo and Salvador towns, both in Lanao del Sur, and in Sultan Gumander, a coastal town in Lanao del Sur.

The anti-crime mechanisms of the joint ceasefire committee are now in place, he added.

Key MILF sources said guerrillas in the border of Sultan Naga Dimaporo in Lanao del Norte and Sultan Gumander, Lanao del Sur have already established temporary command posts around a hinterland where Sinnott is being held captive.

The 5,000-member National Ulama Council of the Philippines, whose members are mostly foreign-trained Islamic missionaries, has earlier appealed for the release of Sinnott.

Members of the council, among them graduates of the Al-Azzar University in Cairo, Egypt, and the World Islamic Call University in Tripoli, Libya, have branded Sinnott’s kidnapping as “Satanic.”

Allan Molde, Zamboanga del Sur crisis management committee spokesman, said Gov. Aurora Ceriles and Zamboanga del Sur Bishop Manny Cabajar are very much concerned about the ailing Sinnott’s condition.

“Sad to say this is now the 14th day but until now we don’t have information as to his whereabouts and we have not established contact with the abductors,” he said.

Molde said they do not have information if the medicines sent to Sinnott have reached him.

“We are appealing to the public to let the CMC do our job,” he said.

“Everybody is very worried about the situation of Fr. Sinnott, but somehow the varying information on his condition and whereabouts is discouraging.

“That’s why we are appealing to anyone holding him to release Fr. Sinnott because at the age of 79 with his heart condition, he should not be stressed out.”

Meanwhile, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, outgoing Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president, said yesterday he does not favor the pull out of foreign missionaries in the country following the kidnapping of Sinnott.

“I think they should not be pulled out… because danger is part of the priests’ vocation,” he said.

“We are sent to the most difficult places for the mission of Christ. I admire the heroism and missionary works of the religious even the Columban like Fr. Sinnott.”

Sinnott was kidnapped in Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur last Oct. 11.

The 79-year-old missionary priest reportedly underwent a bypass heart surgery in 2007.

The Missionary Society of Columban, of which Sinnott is a member, had asked the government to work for the immediate and safe release of Sinnott. – With Helen Flores, James Mananghaya, Dennis Carcamo