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Sunday, July 08, 2007
Envoy, priest say it is Bossi in photos
MANILA — Italian envoy Margherita Boniver confirmed it was kidnapped Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in the photos that were circulating in the southern Philippines since Friday but she could not ascertain when those photos were taken.
Boniver and Italian Ambassador to the Philippines Rubens Anna Fedele arrived in Zamboanga City Friday night to gather more information surrounding the abduction of Fr. Bossi as well as the government’s ongoing rescue efforts.
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Three photographs showing a kidnapped Italian priest looking thin and drawn have been sent to his mission almost a month after he was abducted in Mindanao, one of his colleagues said Saturday.
The military in the south has also obtained a recording of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi’s voice, said Luciano Benedetti, a priest at Bossi’s mission in Zamboanga City, although it was not immediately possible to confirm this claim.
The first photos of Bossi in captivity were sent late on Friday to the cell phone of Gianni Batista Sandalo, the head of the mission, said Benedetti, who also was kidnapped and freed later by Muslim militants in 1998.
The pictures, apparently taken using a cell phone, showed Bossi in what appeared to be a forested area, looking thin and haggard and wearing the same clothes he had on when he was snatched by gunmen last June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay province’s Payao coastal town, Benedetti told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The pictures show him wearing new red rubber flip-flops, Benedetti said, adding that there was no way of knowing when the photos were taken. Sandalo received the photos from a Spanish priest, Angel Calvo, a long-time Zamboanga resident who has helped secure the freedom of other kidnap victims and who received the pictures from his contact in an underground group, Benedetti said.
In one photo Bossi is holding what looks like an old tape recorder. “The (voice) tape is in the hands of the military, so they are trying to analyze it, translate what is inside,” Benedetti said, adding that the military was keeping the recording and its contents secret.
Benedetti did not say how the military got hold of the recording or how he had heard about it.
He said no one at his mission had listened to the recording.
No military officials in the south were immediately available to comment on Benedetti’s claim, and Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, a military spokesman in Manila, said he wasn’t aware of any such recording.
Boniver and Fedele also met members of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), the religious order to which Bossi belongs, the local officials of Zamboanga City and the Inter-Faith Council of Leaders (IFCL) of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement.
The IFCL issued a statement Saturday on Fr. Bossi abduction.
Boniver said she will to present the statement and other developments gathered in the city to the Italian government and the Parliament upon her return to Italy Sunday.
Boniver was also impressed of the Philippine military efforts to rescue the abducted Pime priest but stressed that the search should not be stopped, as the ultimate goal is to “get the release of an innocent citizen.”
“What I’ve learned so far is very impressive, I believe that the forces deployed on the ground, air and in sea are not only adequate, impressive but I know they are capable soldiers,” the Italian lawmaker said.
She also clarified that her visit to Zamboanga City has nothing to do with talks of paying ransom to Bossi’s abductors.
“I deny any rumors that ransom could be a subject even to discuss, we’re not here to discuss ransom but to liberate Fr. Bossi as quickly as possible in a safe way so he can be brought back to his family and his parishioners,” Boniver pointed out.
Boniver said her visit had nothing to do with negotiations for ransom.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales reassured Boniver that his best units have been dispatched to the area and that the government will not rest until Bossi is freed.
No group has claimed responsibility for Bossi’s abduction and while Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas earlier said the abductors were demanding millions of pesos in ransom, officials have not confirmed this.
MILF guerrillas active in Zamboanga Sibugay have denied any part in his disappearance and assisted in initial search operations, pulling out last week after an accord allowing them to operate with government troops expired.
Meanwhile, the IFCL of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement has issued a statement Saturday on the kidnapping of Fr. Bossi and presented it to Boniver.
She expressed deep gratitude for the “extraordinary declaration of love and sympathy on the statement issued by Silsilah’s IFCL and vowed to deliver it to the Italian government and the Parliament.
“We in the Inter-Faith Council of Leaders (IFCL) of Zamboanga City are deeply saddened by the kidnapping nearly a month ago of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, Pime. We are concerned for his safety and his health, considering the circumstances which now surround him. Fr. Bossi is not a combatant in the ongoing conflict in Mindanao. Fr. Bossi is a missionary priest, far from his home in Abbiategrasso, Italy, who is giving his life in service to the people of Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay,” part of the Silsilah statement reads.
(Full text of the statement)
“We invoke the teachings of our Holy Books, the Qur’an and the Bible, and ask those who hold Fr. Bossi to keep him safe and release him immediately. We ask those who have information about Fr. Bossi to cooperate with the authorities working to find Fr. Bossi and arrange for his release,” it further stated. (AP/with reports from Cheng Ordońez)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga.
(July 8, 2007 issue)
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