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Captive priest relays Maute demands in video

John Unson - Philstar.com
May 30, 2017 | 12:35pm
Captive priest relays Maute demands in video

Fr. Teresito Suganob and his parishioners were grabbed by Maute militants from St. Mary's Cathedral in Marawi City. File photo

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Security officials said Tuesday that they are verifying the assertion on camera of Catholic priest Teresito Suganob that Maute gunmen are holding more than 200 other captives aside from him.
 
Maute terrorists circulated on Tuesday a video of the priest relaying to President Rodrigo Duterte their demand for a ceasefire and the immediate pull out of government forces from Marawi City.
 
Suganob and 14 others were snatched while inside the St. Mary’s Cathedral in Marawi City on May 23 amid gunfights that erupted after they laid siege on a dozen villages there.
 
Suganob, in his recorded message to Duterte, repeatedly emphasized that his captors want an immediate end to the airstrikes meant to flush them out of the city.
 
The priest told Duterte his captors are keen on establishing a Muslim community in Marawi City governed by Sharia law. 
 
Suganob said that, aside from him, Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen are also holding more than 200 others captive.
 
“We want to live longer. Please do something,” Suganob said in his recorded appeal to Duterte.
 
Officials of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao told The STAR Tuesday that intelligence agents are now validating the statement.  
 
In the background while Suganob was recorded appealing to the president were buildings that looked damaged by explosives and razed by fire.
 
Army intelligence sources said they are certain Suganob's message was scripted and may have been made at gunpoint.
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