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Saturday, June 16, 2007
Villagers tapped to help find Italian priest
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Government troops searching for abducted Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in Zamboanga Sibugay Province have "invited" some people who they believed could help in the early recovery of the Italian priest.
Major General Nehemias Pajarito, chief of the Army's 1st Infantry Division, said Friday they are tapping all available resources to recover Bossi at the soonest time possible.
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"We invited them not for questioning. We invited people who we believed knows something," Pajarito said in a phone interview.
Government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members are focusing rescue operations on a mountainous village in Zamboanga Sibugay where Bossi was brought by his abductors.
Bossi, 57, was seized by at least 10 gunmen, some of whom were wearing bonnets, in Barangay Hilal while he was on his way to celebrate mass in the nearby village of Bulawan in the town Payao last Sunday.
National Capital Region Command (NCRcom) chief Ben Mohammad Dolorfino said he is confident the joint operation would result in the capture of Bossi's abductors in the village of Mamagun in Naga town.
Dolorfino said the operation was borne out by information provided by the MILF, which said the kidnappers and their victim were seen in a house in Mamagun on Wednesday morning. He said the gunmen left the house after they sensed the arrival of operating troops.
Dolorfino said Bossi's abductors were again sighted in the mountainous part of Mamagun, forcing the deployment of an Army battalion and undetermined number of MILF forces.
The official said the MILF's involvement was justified under the joint communiqué signed by the government with the MILF in 2002. The communiqué states that the MILF should help in going after criminal elements.
To date, no group has claimed responsibility for Fr. Bossi's abduction or made known demand for his release.
Authorities, however, believed a group tied to the Abu Sayyaf and led by Akidin Abdulsalam, alias Commander Khidi, was responsible for the kidnapping.
"What is important is to be able to contain the kidnappers in one area so that their options available would be limited," said Dolorfino, in expressing optimism that the troops would finally catch up with Commander Khidi's group.
"Once we contain them, there are only two possible options - to escape, probably leave the victim...or probably to negotiate," he added
Dolorfino said Commander Khidi and his group were involved in at least nine other kidnapping incidents in the past. Among the group's victims, he said, are Italian priest Guiessepe Piarantoni, who was snatched in 2001, and two German nationals kidnapped in 1999.
Khidi had figured in skirmishes with government forces in the past but the military failed to neutralize him because "he is very elusive," added Dolorfino.
The abductors are believed to be receiving support from locals in the area.
Fr. Bossi, who belongs to the Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere (Pime), has served for several years here in Mindanao.
Pime has around 22 priests assigned in the country, mostly in Luzon and Mindanao. They have been here since 1968. (Bong Garcia/VR/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (June 16, 2007 issue)
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