THE Philippine military said yesterday it knows where a kidnapped elderly Irish priest is being held on a remote southern island and contact had been made with his abductors to get the hostage lifesaving medicine.Five days after 79-year-old Michael Sinnott was snatched at gunpoint from his missionary compound, the military’s statements appeared to offer some hope for the ailing priest, who suffers from heart problems.
"The kidnappers have sent some feelers," said Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, the top military official in the region. "The contact was more on medicine."
Dolorfino would not elaborate on who the kidnappers contacted, or give their identities, but it appeared to show the abductors had responded to appeals that Sinnott’s life was in danger without daily medication for his heart problems. Local officials handling the hostage crisis had sent pamphlets into the area expressing concern over Fr Sinnott’s health, he said.
Fr Sinnott was taken from his home at the Missionary Society of Saint Columban compound in Pagadian City on Mindanao island on Sunday night. The military said local pirates had taken him by boat east to the Lanao coast and may have turned him over to a local leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist rebel group.
However the MILF leadership has denied any of its commanders were involved, and insists it is helping to secure Fr Sinnott’s release.
Dolorfino said his troops knew where Fr Sinnott was being held, but they were not going to be sent in to rescue him until all peaceful options were exhausted.
"We have already located the exact place where Fr Sinnott was taken," he said. "We are not conducting a rescue operation because we want to give a chance for the peaceful recovery of the abducted priest."
Meanwhile, the head of the Columban missionaries in the Philippines, Fr Patrick O’Donoghue, denied media reports the abductors had contacted the order.
"There has been no contact with me," he said, adding if some other member of the order were contacted he would have been informed about it.
He said it was possible the kidnappers would seek to relay messages to the church through "intermediaries," but no one had told him such a development had taken place.
The Wexford-born Columban Father, known to his family and friends as Mal, was kidnapped last Sunday evening as he was taking an evening stroll in the garden of his home in Pagadian City in the Province of Zamboanga del Sur, Mindanao.
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