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ZAMBOANGA CITY: A Filipino Catholic priest killed by
Abu Sayyaf militants during a kidnapping attempt in Mindanao was
buried on Wednesday in his hometown in the Muslim province of
Shariff Kabunsuan.
Oblate priest Jesus Reynaldo Roda
was peppered with bullets by militants after he resisted the
kidnapping July 15 in the remote village of Likud Tabawan in South
Ubian, Tawi-Tawi province.
Roda was killed outside his
convent at the compound of the Notre Dame High School, where he also
served as its director. The Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a teacher, Omar
Taup and seized another Muslim villager as they escaped from
pursuing policemen.
Hundreds of villagers and
sympathizers, many weeping, gathered at the Oblates cemetery in Datu
Odin Sinsuat town where the remains of the priest was laid to rest.
Father Rito Daquipil, head of the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate mission in Tawi-Tawi, said the Abu Sayyaf
raided the convent. He said the militants then tied Roda’s hands
and then dragged him outside the convent where he was shot in the
head after refusing to go with them.
Roda was praying when the
militants, about 10 of them armed with rifles and handguns, seized
the priest and dragged him outside the chapel, Daquipil said.
“We are all sad. Father Roda
was a good man and was loved by everybody. He was there doing
missionary work with our Muslim brothers and sisters for the past 10
years,” Daquipil said.
Security forces have mounted a
massive search for the gunmen, but failed to locate them and their
hostages.
It was not the first time that
the Abu Sayyaf killed a Catholic priest. In 2002, militants also
kidnapped, tortured and killed a Claretian priest, Roel Gallardo, in
Basilan province.
In 1997, the Abu Sayyaf also
assassinated Catholic bishop Benjamin de Jesus in Jolo, Sulu
province. He was shot several times outside his church in a broad
daylight attack.
Three years later, the Abu Sayyaf
also ambushed a Catholic missionary, Benjamin Inocencio, in Jolo
town while buying gifts for poor Muslims. The Abu Sayyaf also
randomly attacked and bombed Catholic churches in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu
and in Mindanao the past decade.
The Abu Sayyaf, which means
“Bearer of the Sword,” was originally fighting for a separate
Islamic state similar to Afghanistan, but resorted to banditry and
kidnappings for ransom after its Libyan firebrand founder, Abdurajak
Abubakar Janjalani, was killed in 1998 in a firefight with policemen
in Basilan.
--Al Jacinto
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