Crisis committee won't confirm MILF's holding Sinnott

MANILA - A spokesman of the local crisis management committee (CMC) handling the kidnapping case of Father Michael Sinnott on Wednesday said they still have no concrete evidence that can conclude a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group is holding the Irish priest captive.

"Mahirap mag-speculate at this point (It's hard to speculate at this point)," Alan June Molde, spokesman of the Zamboanga del Sur CMC, told ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda.

Molde said that what they have are police and military intelligence information that the 79-year-old Irish priest is being kept in either Lanao del Sur or Lanao del Norte province, which are both MILF bailiwicks.

"We are not 100 percent [MILF are the kidnappers]. There are intelligence reports shared by the police and the military [to the CMC]. We have information that the priest is being held in areas that are identified as camps of the MILF," he added.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno announced in a press conference on Tuesday that they have information the kidnappers are "either directly connected to or very closely associated with the MILF."

Puno said they have identified some of the kidnappers and almost all of them are identified members of the MILF's 113th Base Command headed by Aloy Al Alshree.

He said the priest is being held by Al Alshree's group within the tri-boundary of Lanao provinces and Zamboanga del Sur.

The interior secretary said that with the latest information gathered through police and military intelligence, they are now cutting off communications with the MILF with regards to the rescue efforts for the abducted priest.

He said an MILF group's involvement in the latest kidnapping in Mindanao would somehow affect the government-initiated peace talks with the separatist group. He, however, did not suggest dropping the talks.

The MILF leadership, meanwhile, denied the possible involvement of their members in the kidnapping.

Father Sinnott was abducted by 6 armed men in the Columban house in Gatas District of Pagadian City on October 11. Authorities have earlier released artist's sketches of 3 of the 6 suspects and much later, computer-generated pictures of the suspects.

Zamboanga del Sur Governor Aurora Cerilles had repeatedly pleaded to the kidnappers to release the priest as soon as possible considering his physical condition. The priest had recently undergone an open bypass operation.

In a video released by the kidnappers to the authorities, Father Sinnott read a letter where the kidnappers asked for a $2 million ransom for his release.

The letter also identified the group's leader as a certain Abu Jundal, which Puno said was only an alias.

Molde, meanwhile, maintained that the CMC could not bend to the kidnappers ransom demand.

"We stick and adhere to the policy of the government, which is the no ransom policy. Even the Columban fathers, they stick to the no ransom policy," he said.