THE SEVERED head of a school headmaster abducted by the Abu Sayyaf group of Islamic militants was dumped at a petrol station yesterday in the troubled southern Philippines, adding to tensions over the plight of kidnapped Irish priest Fr Michael Sinnott.
The head of Gabriel Canizares (36) was found inside a bag at a petrol station on Jolo island at dawn, 22 days after the elementary school headmaster was kidnapped, local police chief inspector Usman Pingay told local media. His body remains missing.
Abu Sayyaf militants snatched Mr Canizares from a busload of teachers near the Jolo town of Patikul on October 18th.
The 400-strong Abu Sayyaf extremist group, which is bankrolled by Osama bin Laden’s terror network, demanded a ransom of two million pesos (€28,457) ransom, which his relatives refused to pay.
Fr Sinnott, a Columban missionary, was kidnapped on October 11th in Pagadian. There are similarities with Mr Canizares’s case, although local media have speculated that the killing of Mr Canizares was in retaliation for the arrest of a suspected Abu Sayyaf leader, Adan Asnawi, over the weekend.
Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for deadly bombings, beheadings and kidnappings of foreigners, including priests.
While negotiations are believed to be going on behind the scenes to free Fr Sinnott, authorities have not yet established any meaningful contact with the kidnappers, other than a video issued on October 31st demanding the ransom.
To date the main suspects behind the kidnapping have been a splinter group of the (Moro Islamic Liberation Front, although the front deny this and has offered to help with the rescue effort.
The front has always rejected the allegations, offering its co-operation in efforts to free the priest.
The government response was one of outrage. “We shall make them pay for the enormity of this savagery,” President Gloria Arroyo’s spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement.
The beheading came three days before a visit to Manila by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when security issues are expected to be a key topic.
Abu Sayyaf has carried out a catalogue of atrocities in the southern Philippines in the last few years.
Abu Sayyaf kidnapped Fr Luciano Benedetti in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998 and held him for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed.
The group kidnapped a Filipino priest, Rhoel Gallardo, and a number of teachers in March 2000. He was tortured and beheaded two months later.
It struck again in 2001, snatching Fr Giuseppe Pierantoni (51) from Bologna, as he said Mass. He was freed after six months.
The group also seized three Americans along with a group of Filipino tourists from an island resort in 2001.
One of the Americans was beheaded, while another was killed during a military rescue.
In 2001, kidnappers fatally shot Fr Sinnott’s fellow Irish Columban Fr Rufus Halley from Waterford when he tried to escape.
