EDITORIAL - Vermin

While the nation was preoccupied with natural disasters, crooks struck in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, snatching an Irish priest. Father Michael Sinnott, a 78-year-old Columban missionary, was reportedly taking an evening stroll in his garden last Sunday when armed men barged in and dragged him into a mini van. The vehicle was later found burned on a beach. Sinnott underwent heart bypass surgery last year and his friends expressed concern about his health.

As of early last night there was no word on who might be behind the kidnapping or whether ransom was the motive. Sinnott is the latest in a long line of Catholic missionaries snatched in Mindanao mainly by Islamic extremists. A Filipino priest, Rhoel Gallardo, was kidnapped together with several teachers in March 2000 by the Abu Sayyaf. He was tortured and beheaded two months later. Other priests as well as nuns, most of them foreigners, have also been kidnapped over the past decade but were freed or managed to escape.

Sinnott was snatched as both the military and police were busy assisting in rescue and relief efforts in the areas ravaged by mudslides and flooding in Luzon. Condemnation is unlikely to touch a nerve; the kidnappers clearly took advantage of the tragedy in Luzon to attack an easy target. Authorities will just have to live with the reality that there are many forms of vermin that feed on other people’s misery.

Kidnappers are not the only threats to public safety that authorities must continue to confront amid the natural calamities. Major crimes against property, including bank robbery and carjacking, continue as the Christmas holidays approach.

The suffering from floods and mudslides is bringing out the best in people, but it can also bring out the worst. Petty thievery has been reported in the disaster areas. The Muntinlupa government has complained that young students in a city school used as an evacuation center were robbed of their transportation money by older evacuees. The thievery may be fueled by necessity, but the victims themselves are also in need, and there should be no excuse for crime.

Authorities already have their hands full dealing with public safety problems in the disaster areas. Now they also have to deal with another kidnapping in Mindanao. Sinnott must be rescued quickly and his kidnappers neutralized.