An ailing 79-year-old Irish missionary dragged away at gunpoint from his southern Philippine residence was probably in the hands of Muslim militants looking for ransom, officials said yesterday.
The Reverend Michael Sinnott was inside the Columban House compound in Pagadian city in Zamboanga del Sur Province late on Sunday when a man knocked on the door asking for a priest. When a staffer opened, gunmen barged in and grabbed Sinnott, a fellow Irish priest said.
“He left everything — his glasses, his cellphone, his medicine,” the Reverend Damien McKenna said by telephone.
PHOTO: AFP
The stunned missionaries could not do anything “because the abductors had powerful weapons,” regional police commander Angelo Sunglao said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but suspicion fell on Muslim guerrillas who have been fighting for a separate homeland in the south for decades and who have in the past kidnapped foreigners, including priests.
The abductors took Sinnott away by sea, Sunglao said, citing fishermen in the area. The van used to take him from the house to shore was later found abandoned and burned near the Catholic mission.
Regional military commander Major General Benjamin Dolorfino said Sinnott was apparently kidnapped for ransom. Intelligence reports indicated he was taken by boat to a town in nearby Lanao del Norte Province, where a large Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is active.
Dolorfino said it was not clear if the Moro group or smaller but more violent al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf extremists were involved.
Navy patrol ships were deployed to prevent the kidnappers from moving Sinnott to an area where he could be held or turned over to the Abu Sayyaf, Dolorfino said.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for high-profile kidnappings and for beheading some of its captives.
“There is now an effort to locate him and lock them in a particular area,” Dolorfino said.
Sinnott was well-loved in Pagadian because of his civic work, McKeena said.
He has been helping children with disabilities, including providing volunteers to teach the deaf to communicate by sign language. He also has been attending community dialogues to foster harmony between Christians and Muslims, the Reverend John Comiskey said.
“The people who did this should be ashamed of themselves because Father Sinnott has devoted his time to take care of children who are deaf and those with other disabilities,” McKeena said.
The Columban regional director, Patrick O’Donoghue, said he was worried because Sinnott has a heart condition and was not carrying his medication when he was taken.
The priest has worked in the Philippines for decades. The group said he was first assigned in the southern Philippines from 1957 to 1966, then returned in 1976.
In June 2007, alleged Moro rebels in league with the Abu Sayyaf held an Italian priest, Giancarlo Bossi, in Zamboanga Sibugay Province for 39 days. The Moro group denied any involvement, and Manila said no ransom was paid.
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