AFTER 32 gruelling days of captivity, the missionary known fondly as “Fr Mick” to those in the southern Philippines where he set up the Hangop Kabataan School for children with learning disabilities, has been freed.
Authorities will ensure that Fr Sinnott has a full check-up, as he was most likely held in the open, which is relatively easy for his abductors who are used to the environment, but the heat, the mosquitoes and the exposure would have been hard on the health of an elderly man who had heart surgery four years ago.
While details of the negotiations to secure his release have not emerged, and may never be revealed, experts believe that strong representations would have been made on his behalf behind the scenes by prominent local Muslim businessmen and religious leaders.
The main suspects behind the kidnapping remains a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, although the rebel group all along denied this and reportedly helped with the rescue effort.
The group has always rejected all the allegations, offering its co-operation in efforts to free the priest, and even at one point demanded an apology from the government for accusing them of complicity.
Since 1978, fighting between government troops and the liberation front on the southern island of Mindanao has claimed 120,000 lives and made up to two million people homeless.
There are thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict now, victims of attacks by both the rebels and the army.
Fr Sinnott’s release follows a tense week after the severed head of Gabriel Canizares, a Philippine school headmaster abducted in similar circumstances by the Abu Sayyaf group of Islamic militants, was dumped at a petrol station in the area.
Fr Sinnott is the third Irish priest to be kidnapped in the area. In 1997, Fr Des Hartford was held by Islamic militants for 12 days, and in 2001 a priest from Waterford, Fr Rufus Hally, was shot dead during an attempted abduction.
The Government insists that no ransom was paid. Going on previous kidnappings, such as the case in Sudan of the Irish aid worker Sharon Commins, it is possible that some kind of face-saving solution may have been found, where the kidnappers’ “expenses” were paid through some third party or intermediaries. This sum is not likely to be anything near the amount being sought by the kidnappers.
Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O’Reilly, who is chairman of the Bishops’ Commission for the Missions, welcomed the news of Fr Sinnott’s release and thanked all those who prayed for his release.
