Zamboanga (AsiaNews) – Filipino soldiers have tracked down Fr Giancarlo Bossi, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) abducted on June 10, to the mountain village of Sapad in Nunungan town, Lanao del Norte province, Major General Ben Dolorfino said Wednesday. PIME missionaries have not been able to confirm the information.

Father Bossi was sighted with his 13 men, presumably his captors, in Sapad, said General Ben Dolorfino. When he was first sighted, the missionary was described as tired but "physically okay."

"Our effort now,” the general said, “is to cordon off the area . . . . It is very important that we immobilize the kidnappers.”

Dolorfino described Sapad village as "mountainous and thickly forested," adding heavy rains and thunderstorms were making it difficult to contact the kidnappers.

“They [abductors] are from the place. They know the terrain,” the officer said.