Mags Gargan
A Columban missionary who was held for ransom by militants in the Philippines has raised doubts on reports that the leader of the kidnapper gang was killed by security forces at the weekend.
Fr Michael Sinnott, originally from Co. Wexford, was snatched outside his house in Pagadian City in October 2009 and held hostage for a month by suspected Islamic militants until a larger rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, helped to facilitate negotiations for his release. No ransom was paid.
Waning Abdusalam, a man who Filipino security forces believe led the notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group that was responsible for the abduction of some 12 victims, including Fr Sinnott, was killed in a joint military and police operation after he resisted arrest on Sunday, according to a Filipino military spokesman.
However, Fr Sinnott told The Irish Catholic he didn’t believe this was the man who kidnapped him. “They say he belongs to Abu Sayyaf and if Abu Sayyaf had me then I don’t think I would be alive now. The name is not one of the names that the kidnappers gave me. He may be someone who kidnapped a lot of people, but I don’t think he kidnapped me,” he said.
Mistreated
The missionary, who retired back to Ireland in July 2012 after 50 years in the Philippines, said he wouldn’t like to see his kidnappers being killed. “The two men who stayed with me for the last portion were every good to me. I never had much against them. We were living in very primitive conditions, but they did everything they could to make it as easy as possible and they never mistreated me,” he said.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history, including the bombing of a ferry in 2004, which killed 116 people.