ZAMBOANGA CITY - Despite the government’s failure to establish contact with the kidnappers of Irish priest Michael Sinnott, the trust of his colleagues in the authorities has not waned, a provincial official said Thursday.
Quoting a letter from the Rev. Patrick O’Donoghue, the regional director of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, Allan Molde, spokesperson of the Zamboanga del Sur crisis management committee, said the religious group continued to have full trust in the actions of the government.
Molde said O’Donoghue also clarified reports that “the Columban Missionaries in the Philippine Region requested the help of the US Government to secure the safe release of Fr. Michael Sinnott.”
“I would like to clarify that the Columban Missionaries here in the Philippine Region did not in any way make such a request, nor did we ask the Columbans in the US Region to make it for us,” Molde quoted O’Donoghue’s letter as saying.
“In his letter, O’Donoghue lauded and stated his gratitude to the Philippine Government for its immediate actions on Fr. Sinnott’s safe release, which was evident in the creation of the Crisis Management Committee led by Governor Aurora Cerilles and in its efforts in extracting all possible resources to ensure the good health of Fr. Sinnott,” Molde said.
In Cotabato City, a 14-member European Union delegation joined the call for the immediate release of the 79-year-old missionary.
Speaking for the delegation, Spanish Ambassador Luis Romero said the group has been doing humanitarian work, extending relief assistance to displaced inhabitants of Mindanao regardless of one's status in life, and “yet here we are, confronted with the problem of having to recover the missing Irish Columban missionary.”
"We sincerely appeal that the same humanitarian gesture is accorded to the 79-year-old friar whose health condition needs regular medication," said Romero.
Romero and the other EU ambassadors were here since Wednesday to check on the condition of some 47,000 families displaced by last year’s violence in North Cotabato and Maguindanao.
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