Kidnappers free Irish priest before Clinton’s Manila visit

Karl Wilson, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 13. 2009 12:16AM UAE / November 12. 2009 8:16PM GMT

The Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with Michael Sinnott in Manila yesterday. Noel Celis / AFP

MANILA // An Irish priest held captive in the southern Philippines for more than a month was freed yesterday just hours before the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, arrived in Manila for a visit.

The Columban priest Michael Sinnott, 79, looked tired but in good health when he arrived at Manila’s Villamor Air Force Base after his release in Zamboanga, Mindanao Island, before dawn.

He said his kidnappers treated him well and did not intend to harm him. “I guess because of my age I may have slowed them down a bit,” he joked at a press conference.

Fr Sinnott said as far as he was aware, his kidnappers were not members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf) but those of a “lost command”. The term is often used to describe rogue Milf groups. Since the failure of a peace proposal last year, a number of Milf commanders have broken away from the group’s main command and carried on fighting for a Muslim homeland.

Fr Sinnott was kidnapped on October 11 while walking in the grounds of his parish in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur.

“They wanted ransom money,” Fr Sinnott said. Both the Philippine and Irish governments, however, denied paying any ransom.

The Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said she was delighted with the peaceful outcome.

“They lectured me about their ideology. They told me they had lost everything – their homes, their land – and were determined to fight to get a Moro [Muslim] state. And if they could not do it their children would fight for it – and their children would fight,” Fr Sinnott said, before being taken to a hospital in Manila for treatment.

Fr Sinnott was handed over to a Milf group which had been working with the government to secure the priest’s release. The kidnappers had earlier demanded a ransom of US$2 million (Dh7.3m).

Kidnappings are common in the southern Philippines where Islamic groups such as Abu Sayyaf and breakaway groups from the Milf and former rogue elements of the Moro National Liberation Front operate.

The southern Philippines is a complex mix of Muslim clans that often fight each other and carry out kidnappings using the Abu Sayyaf or the Milf as a cover. Philippine authorities this week accused Abu Sayyaf of beheading a school principal, who was abducted on the island of Jolo last month.

The Milf applied “moral force” on the kidnappers to free Fr Sinnott, the group’s chief peace negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, said by telephone. The group denied government claims that they were involved in the kidnapping. “We did our part. It’s a goodwill and humanitarian gesture, without any other consideration,” Mr Iqbal said.

The southern Philippines has seen a number of high profile kidnappings this year.

On January 15 three workers with the International Committee of the Red Cross were kidnapped in Patikul town on the southern island of Jolo off Mindanao. Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba and Swiss Andreas Notter were released in April, while Euenio Vagni, an Italian, was released on July 12, hours before the Central Intelligence Agency director, Leon Pannetta, arrived in Manila for security talks.

In 2007 an Italian priest, Fr Giancarlo Bossi, was held for more than a month by Abu Sayyaf.

The kidnappings take place despite the presence of 600 US Special Forces troops in the southern Philippines, training their Filipino counterparts in counterinsurgency.

The Philippine government sought to downplay the release of Fr Sinnott on the same day that Mrs Clinton flew into Manila but the president’s adviser for Mindanao affairs Jesus Dureza admitted the release was a positive development in time for Clinton’s visit.

“If his release appeared to coincide with Clinton’s visit, it was not intentional,” Mr Dureza said in an interview on local radio.

The abduction of Fr Sinnott had become an international issue and even drew concern from the Vatican. He said he hoped to return to his parish as soon as possible.

The government now said it would continue its peace efforts with the Milf and hope formal talks can resume in December.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae