US spy plane could join search for Italian priest In Mindanao

Manila-- Government troops are hard on the heels of the group who seized an Italian priest from a remote village in Zamboanga Sibugay Sunday.

Fr. John Carlo Bossi was seized by armed men in Barangay Bulawan in the town of Payao.

Maj. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito, chief of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, said “the troops are still out tracking the location of the victim and gunmen.”

On Monday, Malacañang said mainstream members of the Moro Islamic Liberation were not involved in the kidnapping of Bossi.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the MILF would not do anything to that could derail the resumption of peace negotiations with the government.

Ermita said the MILF is committed to the peace process.

The abductors are believed to be led by a certain Commander Khidi, the chieftain of a renegade MILF group in the area.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said on Sunday that Khidi’s group has long left the MILF.

“That group is not MILF. We express our readiness to extend whatever assistance we can give to the Philippine authorities,” Kabalu said.

Pursuing the kidnappers are troops from the Army’s 102nd Infantry Brigade, one of the units under Pajarito’s command in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Pajarito said they have yet to determine if the kidnappers “are lost command rebels or tied with kidnap-for-ransom-groups.”

“No one has claimed responsibility as of this time,” said Zamboanga Sibugay police director Senior Supt. Francisco Cristobal.

Bossi is the second Italian priest to be kidnapped in the Zamboanga Peninsula in six years.

In October 2001, Fr. Giussepe Pierantoni was kidnapped by the Pentagon, a notorious gang of kidnappers, in Dimataling, Zamboanga del Sur. Pierantoni was released several weeks later.

President Arroyo has instructed the military and police to coordinate with local leaders of Zamboanga to ensure Bossi’s safety and quick recovery.

The priest was riding a motorcycle when he was blocked by at least 10 men wearing bonnets.

Bossi is in Mindanao as a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) and was assigned in Payao on April 1.

In their report to President Arroyo, the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, and the Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Oscar Calderon, said they have requested the US military to have an Orion surveillance plane sweep Basilan where the priest was believed to have been brought.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney, in an interview after the conferment of Order of Golden Heart to the late US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell, said a kidnapping is not acceptable, anytime and anywhere.

Kenney vowed to help Philippine authorities rescue Bossi.

--PNA and Sam Mediavilla