RELEASE OF FR MICHAEL SINNOTT:A ROUND of applause greeted a smiling Fr Michael Sinnott as he strolled into the refectory in the Columban Fathers' compound in Manila yesterday, 32 days after he was abducted in the southern Philippines.
Looking surprisingly fresh and relaxed as he lined up with his plate to get his dinner with his fellow missionaries, the 79-year-old from Clonard in Wexford was clearly relieved that his ordeal of hiking through jungles and shifting from one hideout to another by speedboat was over.
Fr Sinnott was abducted by four men, one of them armed, while taking an evening stroll in his compound in Pagadian in the restive Mindanao region on October 11th.
“You get used to anything,” he said of his days in captivity.
“I’d say prayers in the morning, and in the afternoon I did 20 decades of the rosary. Finding things to do was the hardest thing to do.”
He bore little ill will towards his captors, who he said treated him well.
The southern island of Mindanao has been plagued with kidnappings this year, most of them linked to the al-Qaeda-funded Abu Sayyaf group.
On Monday, the militants were suspected of beheading a kidnapped schoolteacher on nearby Jolo island.
Both the Irish and Filipino governments insisted no ransom was paid, as did the Columbans, although it seems likely that “board and lodging” money was handed over to secure his release. This is a face-saving payment made to kidnappers which is usually well shy of the amount demanded.
Little is known about what went on behind the scenes during the month following the kidnapping. Filipino security officials had initially blamed Fr Sinnott’s kidnapping on members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist group that has entered peace talks with the government as both sides try to find a resolution to fighting that has claimed 120,000 lives and left millions homeless since 1978.
The MILF responded angrily, demanding an apology from the government, and only when Manila retracted its accusations did the group take a formal part in the rescue mission. Their intercession appears to have been crucial.
Fr Sinnott was handed over in the early hours yesterday by the kidnappers to members of the MILF, who then handed the priest over to the rescue committee.
“We did our part. It’s a goodwill and humanitarian gesture, without any other consideration,” said MILF leader Mohagher Iqbal, adding that his group had applied “pressure and our moral authority” on the kidnappers to release Fr Sinnott.
Fr Sinnott told local media he did not think his captors were linked to the MILF, but Filipino security forces have vowed to track down his captors, and insisted there was evidence linking the abductors to the MILF.