PASAY CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Irish Columban Father Michael Sinnott hopes to resume his ministry after being released by kidnappers who had held him for a month. 

Father Michael Sinnott speaking to reporters after his release

The priest said he was kept in "very primitive" conditions in two areas, one a swampy area "with mud all around us." He said he could not move about and was forced to sit in a hammock all day with his guard.

He had also been kept in the jungle and at one point was forced to march for around eight hours through the mountains.

Father Sinnott said he did not think anyone would want to kidnap him again, as he had slowed his captors down.

"I'm an old man, and I had a hard time walking," the priest said, laughing.

He said he would like to continue working in Pagadian diocese where he has served most of his 42 years in the Philippines.

Father Sinnott was released before dawn on Nov. 12 in Zamboanga City, 850 kilometers southeast of Manila. He was later flown to Pasay City, south of Manila, where he met reporters.

Mohagher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), handed over the 79-year-old missioner to Rafael Seguis, his counterpart in the government peace panel.

The priest rejects the idea of seeking retribution.

"I have no plan to file any charges," he said.

Father Sinnott was abducted from the Columban Father's residence in Pagadian City on Oct. 11 by a group of men who bundled him in a van and then onto a boat, before handing him over to a second group.

The priest said the first group was a bit rough with him, but his captors treated him well and food was "adequate" considering the spartan conditions.

Father Sinnott said he has no idea who his kidnappers were but is "very sure" they were not MILF.

The second group of captors "knew nothing about me," he recounted, adding that they oppose the MILF for condemning kidnapping for ransom.

"They said it is alright for the MILF to say kidnapping is forbidden in the Qur'an," because the MILF gets international support. His captors said they had no other way to raise funds for weapons, the priest continued.

The missioner described his captors in the mountains as "very well organized." Supplies arrived regularly, and he was given food "specially for me" twice a day.

Earlier, while he was held in the forest, his captors said attempts to free him had been foiled by bad weather.

Father Sinnott explained that his kidnappers had scripted the message he read on a video made on Oct. 24 and sent to the crisis management committee five days later.

"It was written in Bisaya (or Cebuano, a dialect used in central and southern Philippines), and I had to translate it into English," the priest said. The group had also lectured him about their ideology.

They told him they were freeing him so he could tell the international community they are lumad, indigenous Filipinos of Mindanao, the southern Philippine region, and would fight until Mindanao was "independent" with the Qur'an as its constitution.

Father Sinnott, speaking in both English and Bisaya, thanked "every one of my friends that I know prayed for me while I was in captivity."

The MILF has not disclosed where they found Father Sinnott, nor any details about his abductors. However, Iqbal said MILF task force members had spoken with relatives of the kidnappers and "applied moral pressure" to release the priest without ransom.

"Kidnapping is illegal in Islam," he said, "and Father Sinott's recovery did not involve any money."

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The priest says he has no ill feeling towards his kidnappers. "They treated me well ... I was given lectures on their ideology, but for the rest, I was treated well."

Fr. Michael Sinnott, 79, a Columban missionary, was kidnapped on 11 October in the courtyard of his church by an armed group. Initially, authorities had suspected that the group belonged to the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the armed group fighting for autonomy in Mindanao.

Fr. Sinnot has ruled that his kidnappers belonged to the MILF. "I am very sure," said the priest, after his release, "My captors were real nomads, not MILF." He also said that the reason for his kidnapping was for money in ransom.

In fact is was MILF - which has offered to help the army – that delivered the freed, priest, whose suffered precarious health conditions and had undergone by-pass surgery.

 At the end of October, the kidnappers released a video of the priest, in which they demanded a ransom of 2 million dollars. The Philippine authorities and the Irish state say they did not pay the ransom.

General Ben Dolorfino, has applauded the commitment of MILF and stated that the release of Fr Sinnot is a “positive measure for the upcoming peace negotiations".

MILF, after decades of insurgency in the south, had opened peace talks with the government, but they were suspended last year due to a series of accidents caused by rebel groups in Mindanao.

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11/12/2009 14:21
  

PHILIPPINES
 

Joy for the release of Fr Sinnott
by Santosh Digal

After release, the priest speaks of his 31 days of captivity. The kidnappers would never have killed him they were just looking for the ransom. Fr. Sinnott wants to stay in the Philippines.

Father Sinnott at press conference today in Manila

Manila (AsiaNews) - "We thank all those who worked for the release of Fr Sinnott and we hope that such incidents do not recur in future", says Msgr. Angel Lagdameo, president of the Filipino bishops' conference, on the release of Fr Michael Sinnott. After 31 days of captivity, the Irish missionary St. Columban was released this morning in Sangalo (Mindanao-Zamboanga), thanks to the intervention of members of the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front).

Fr. Sinnott was kidnapped last October 11 at his home in Pagadian (Zamboanga) by a commando of seven armed men. To escape they Philippine army the kidnappers forced Fr. Sinnott, elderly and with a serious heart condition, to hike for a month in the jungle province of Lanao del Norte, located 150 km from Zamboanga.

"Immediately after the kidnap I was bundled onto a boast and brought to Lanai – says Fr. Sinnott - and here I was entrusted to two guards". "After crossing the swamps – he continues – they led me into the forest". He says that as his only shelter in the jungle were branches and he had a hammock as a bed, but he adds he was treated well by his kidnappers.

"I was kidnapped for ransom - said Fr Sinnott - the kidnappers always promised me that I would not be killed”.   The priest adds that "despite what has happened to me I still want to work in the Philippines."

Fr. O'Donoghue, regional superior of the Society of St. Columba, said "This morning we learned with joy and gratitude of the news of the release of Fr. Sinnott", and that "in the coming days, we will decide where to assign him. For now he needs to rest and regain his strength".

In recent weeks the Columban missionaries in Pagadian and Zamboanga had organized prayer vigils and peaceful demonstrations to demand the release of the priest, involving Christians and Muslims.

In recent years, 13 foreign missionaries have been kidnapped or killed. Fr. Sinnott is the third priest of Irish order to be kidnapped. In 1997 Fr. Des Hartford was kidnapped by a group of Islamic rebels and freed after 12 days of captivity. A few years later in 2001 another missionary from Waterford, Fr Rufus Hally was killed during an attempted kidnapping. In 2007, MILF had brokered with the kidnappers for the release of PIME missionary Father Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped in Zamboanga and freed after 39 days of captivity.

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ASIA/PHILIPPINES - “Fr. Sinnott is free, thanks be to God!”: Superior General of the Saint Columban Missionaries shares his joy with Fides