Philippines widens search for kidnapped priest

Manila, Jun 11: The Philippine military used helicopters and spy drones today and sought the help of US intelligence to widen the search for Muslim rebels who kidnapped an Italian Catholic priest in the south of the country.

Military chief General Hermogenes Esperon said security forces had fanned out across the Zamboanga peninsula to search for Carlo Bossi of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), a day after the priest was taken at gunpoint after saying Sunday mass in Payao town.

''We have our aircraft flying all over,'' Esperon told reporters after a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the presidential palace. ''The US military has been providing some technical assistance. We hope to get something soon.'' Esperon said extra troops had been sent to help in the search with navy boats patrolling the coasts of nearby Lanao, Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao provinces. Soldiers on Basilan island had also been on alert to intercept the gunmen and the priest.

Esperon said the largest Islamic guerrilla group in the south of the mainly Catholic country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), had promised to help rescue the 57 year-old Bossi, the third Italian priest to be kidnapped in the area since 1998.

The other two were released after some months and it was not clear if a ransom was paid.

''No news yet,'' Gianni Sandalo, head of the PIME congregation in the south, told reporters, adding they were still awaiting any ransom demand from the group that abducted Bossi.

Philippine security forces said the kidnappers, led by a certain Commander Kiddie, had links with either rogue Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels or with the Abu Sayyaf, the small but deadliest Islamic rebel group in the south.

''We believed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was not involved because we are about to resume peace talks with them,'' said Eduardo Ermita, a retired general and Arroyo's executive secretary, adding the rebels agreed to help rescue the priest.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, said his group had signed an agreement with the government to ''isolate and interdict'' criminal gangs operating in Muslim areas.

''If they make the mistake of entering into our areas, we'll surely get them and hand over the priest to the government,'' he said, citing the rescue of a German and three Filipinos in North Cotabato province in early June.

Reuters>