Negotiations for priest´s release ´set to begin´

Published Date: October 28, 2009

The Church spokesman for the crisis committee handling the kidnapping of Columban Father Michael Sinnott says negotiations for the priest´s release are about to begin.

Father Michael Sinnott

It is the first glimmer of hope in the case since Father Sinnott was abducted more than two weeks ago.

“After 15 days of looming darkness, our prayers have been heard,” Pagadian diocese´s vicar general, Father Gilbert Hingone, told members of the Interfaith Forum for Solidarity and Peace during their meeting.

“Finally, negotiation is about to start, so let´s pray intensively at least for the next three to five days for the negotiation to prosper.”

Armed men snatched the 79-year-old Irish missioner from the Columban Fathers´ house in Pagadian City, 800 kilometers southeast of Manila on Oct. 11 evening.

Father Hingone refused to give further details for fear of hampering efforts to free Father Sinnott but said the crisis committee has been “given hope to believe that Father Mick is alive.”

He reported, however, that earlier efforts to send medicine to the priest through a messenger and get proof he is alive had failed.

“We are very sad to say” the man in the photo sent to the committee was not Father Sinnott, the vicar general said.

Muslims and Christians in Pagadian have vowed to gather each day at 3 p.m. in their own places of worship to pray for the safe release of Father Sinnott.

Catholic parishioners in Pagadian have started to include a petition for Father Sinnott´s safe release when they recite together the prayer to the Divine Mercy. Muslims are also doing the same when they recite the “Azhar prayer” in their mosques.

Subanen tribal people have also started performing rituals “to pray for Father Mick´s freedom,” indigenous spiritual leader Joe Marical told UCA News. Tribal leaders and bailan (spiritual leaders) will gather with family members at 6 p.m. each day until the priest is freed.

Around the city and the rest of Zamboanga del Sur province, members of the interfaith forum are tying ribbons of blue, Father Sinnott´s favorite color, around trees, posts and other objects.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr., earlier told reporters that a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels are holding Father Sinnott, but the crisis committee would not confirm that.

The MILF leadership has denied involvement in the kidnapping and has offered to help recover Father Sinnott.

In a separate press briefing, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said reports indicated that MILF rebels were holding Father Sinnott at the boundaries of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte provinces, east of Pagadian.

He said a group of pirates led by one Guingona Samal snatched the priest before turning him over to the rebels. He said the MILF offered to help in the rescue of Father Sinnott, but the military had appealed to them not to deploy troops.

“If possible, they (MILF) should not operate as combat units on the ground because the (army´s) 104th Brigade is already there and ready to move any time the Crisis Management Committee says so,” Brawner said.

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