Zamboanga (AsiaNews) – Searches continue for Fr.Giancarlo Bossi, missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, kidnapped in the Southern Island chain of Mindanao June 10 last: the administrator of the of the Catholic prelature of Ipil, Fr. Nador Jasulga, has created an emergency task force.
In the meantime the Philippine army has admitted its failure to locate the area in which the priest is being held prisoner. Colonel Roberto Rabasio, who is co-ordinating the “man hunt”, explains: “The kidnappers have not answered our requests for negotiation and neither have they asked for anything in return. We are combing the area of Sibugay, near Zamboanga for them”. The military has however, agreed to reduce their pressure on the kidnappers to avoid all possible negative developments of the case.
Despite this authorities are still unable to name the author of the abduction, with accusations and suppositions flying. The first to have been accused were the separatist rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf), who immediately denied all involvement and even offered their services in the governments search for Fr. Bossi.
The military believes that the head of the armed group behind the Pime missionary’s kidnap is Abdusalam Akiddin, who Milf leaders describe as “a renegade who has allied himself with Abu Sayyaf”, an organization with links to al-Qaeda. For some locals the authors maybe simple bandits in search of money.
