MILF Offers Help To Rescue Kidnapped Italian Priest In Philippines

Two undated photos of Italian missionary Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, who has been kidnapped Sunday, 10 June 2007, in Zamboanga Sibugay province in the southern Philippines. (AsiaNews)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 10 Jun) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said it is helping Filipino authorities track down kidnappers of an Italian priest in Mindanao island.

Philippine authorities tagged MILF leader Akkidin Abdusalam, also known as Commander Kiddie, as behind the kidnapping Sunday of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi.

“We are still verifying the reports. The MILF is cooperating with the Philippine authorities,” a rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu told the independent regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

Gunmen seized the 57-year old priest after celebrating mass with villagers in the town of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay province, the Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere (PIME) said.

“We are awaiting reports about his abduction. Fr. Bossi was taken after celebrating mass in the village of Bulawan,” the regional PIME head, Fr. Giani Sandalo, told the independent regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

Authorities have previously linked Abdusallam to previous kidnappings in Mindanao and a captured Abu Sayyaf militant, Omar Opik Lasal, also tagged the MILF leader to slain Jemaah Islamiya bomber Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi.

Lasal said the rebel commander provided him and al-Ghozi and another Abu Sayyaf terrorist Abdulmukin Edris safe refuge in Mindanao when they escaped from a police detention in Manila in 2003.

Al-Ghozi and Edris were later killed in separate clashes with security forces in Mindanao. Al-Ghozi, tagged as behind the 2000 bombing in Manila, had been serving a 17-year jail term for possessing explosives when he escaped.

Bossi, who started his missionary in Payao since 1998, is the third Italian priest kidnapped in Zamboanga Peninsula in the past ten years.

Moro rebels kidnapped Fr. Luciano Benedetti, 52, in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998 and held for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed in exchange for a huge government ransom.

In 2001, renegade MILF rebels snatched Fr. Giuseppi Pierantoni as the 44-year-old from Bologna said mass in the parish church of Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur. He escaped from his abductors after six months in captivity.

The Italian online AsiaNews on Sunday listed an overview of main abduction cases involving foreigners in Mindanao:

September 8, 1998

Fr. Luciano Benedetti, a missioner with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) is kidnapped near Sibuco town in Zamboanga del Norte province. He is released on November 16 after 68 days of captivity.

March 20, 2000

Muslim extremists from the Abu Sayyaf group abduct 29 Catholics, including many children, from a school on the island of Basilan. They demand the release of three Muslim activists imprisoned in the U.S. One of the hostages, the school's director, Claretian Fr. Roel Gallardo, is killed in April.

April 23, 2001

Abu Sayyaf terrorists capture 21 hostages on Sipadan island in Malaysia, including seven Europeans. The group is made up of a German family of three, French and a Finnish couple, nine Malaysians, two Filipinos and two South Africans. They are moved to the island of Jolo, about a 1,000 km from Manila. The kidnappers demand a huge ransom and the creation of an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

August 28, 2001

Fr. Rufus Halley, an Irish priest from the Society of St. Columban for Foreign Missions, is killed during a kidnapping attempt by the MILF in Malabang town in the Apostolic Prefecture of Marawi in Lanao del Sur province. He was involved in inter-faith dialogue.

October 17, 2001

Italian missioner Giuseppe Pierantoni is kidnapped by alleged Muslim guerrillas belonging to the Pentagon Gang while celebrating mass in a church in Dimataling town in southern Zamboanga peninsula. He is released on April 14, 2002.

June 7, 2002

Abducted on May 27, American evangelical missioner Martin Burnham dies near Sirawai, a town also on Zamboanga del Norte province during an army rescue operation. Burnham's wife is wounded but free.

“The kidnapping of Fr. Bossi is the latest of a long history of westerners abducted, almost always Christians. Kidnappers are seeking an independent Islamic state in southern Philippines. They look at fame or money by ransoms,” the AsiaNews said. (Mindanao Examiner)