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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
MORO Islamic Liberation Front
rebels failed to establish contact with the kidnappers of Italian
priest Giancarlo Bossi believed to be hiding in a village in
northwestern Mindanao, prompting the government to ask local
officials and residents to give it a try.
“As of now…there’s no
direct contact with the kidnappers. It seems there’s a stumbling
block in the communication,” Maj. Gen. Ben Mohammad Dolorfino,
who coordinates the rescue operation for Bossi, told a press
briefing in Camp Aguinaldo.
Dolorfino, the chief of the
military’s National Capital Regional Command (Ncrcom), is
co-chairman of the Ad-hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) of the
government and MILF peace panels.
The group’s was disbanded
Thursday, making it difficult to coordinate rescue efforts between
the military and the MILF.
Dolorfino said he was puzzled by
the MILF’s failure to establish contact with the kidnappers who
were sighted in Nunungan, Lanao del Norte, an MILF bailiwick.
He said something is being done
to clear up the problem.
Earlier information provided by
the MILF to the military put Bossi and his kidnappers somewhere in
Barangay Sapad in Nunungan.
The information was verified by
military intelligence and turned out to be inaccurate, Dolorfino
said.
“The fact that the MILF is
concentrating their forces in that area only means that the
kidnappers and their victim are within in the area,” he said.
Asked what could happen if the
MILF information was incorrect, Dolorfino said: “It will backfire
on them [MILF].”
He said they are seeking the help
of local officials in the towns of Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Nunungan,
and Salvador in locating Bossi’s kidnappers.
Dolorfino said a group of
“concerned citizens” have offered to help establish contact with
the group.
“I told them [captors] that
they should produce proof of life first before we start with the
negotiation…maybe with a picture of Father Bossi there,” he
said.
Bossi was abducted in Payao,
Zamboanga Sibugay, while on his way to Mass on June 10.
He is the third Italian priest to
be kidnapped by bandits in the Zamboanga Peninsula in 10 years.
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