Pierantoni alive, pushes ransom

DAVAO CITY — Kidnapped Italian Catholic priest Giuseppe Pierantoni has written his superiors to assure them that he is still alive and to ask that ransom be paid for his freedom.

In a handwritten letter, dated Jan. 11 and sent through an emissary of the kidnappers, Pierantoni said: "I am writing you to let you know I am alive and in good health. I am ready to go home, as long as you pay the financial assistance requested by those who kidnapped me."

Fathers Jerry Sheehy and Aloisio Back, Pierantoni’s superiors at the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Manila, believe that the Italian priest is still alive and appealed to his kidnappers to immediately release him.

"After 14 weeks since Fr. Beppe was abducted, we wish to remember our brother priest and to make this statement," the two said.

"Today, Ash Wednesday, we celebrate the beginning of Lent, a time when we remember that our life is a gift from God/Allah and that we are on a journey going back to God/Allah. We wish to make a renewed appeal to Fr. Beppe’s abductors, in the name of God/Allah: show some mercy and let him go free!"

Sheehy and Back said apart from the letter, they also received last Jan. 21 some photographs and a tape-recorded message from Pierantoni.

Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said military informants have assured that "very strong indications" show that Pierantoni is still alive.

"Usually when a hostage is executed, the bandits announce this because they want propaganda mileage," he said. "But we have not received such (reports of execution), we believe he’s still alive and the people holding him are still waiting for his redemption through ransom."

Negotiations are ongoing for the release of the 44-year-old priest but that the military is not aware of any plan to pay ransom to the kidnappers, he added.

Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), assured yesterday that Pierantoni is still alive and being held captive "somewhere" in Western Mindanao.

"The priest is very much alive and is being held captive somewhere in Western Mindanao, in the Zamboanga provinces," he said.

Kabalu warned the Catholic Church to be wary of "impostors" who are posing as emissaries of Pierantoni’s kidnappers.

"You should know how some of our Maranaw brothers do some trick," he said. "They have been playing on the fate of the Italian priest. There are many interested parties who want to make money out of the abduction of the priest. That’s why I’m saying that the church should also be very careful with whom they are dealing."

Sources in the Catholic church said preparations are being made to receive Pierantoni but it was not clear if the kidnappers have been paid ransom.

However, Iligan City police director Superintendent Rogelio Nuneza said the letter has boosted hopes that the priest would be released soon.

Earlier, church and government officials rejected a demand for about $1 million as ransom for Pierantoni, who was snatched on Oct. 16 last year while having dinner in a convent in the coastal town of Dimatiling in Zamboanga del Norte.

Last week, Faisal Marohombsar, a leader of the Pentagon kidnap gang, was quoted as saying that the priest had died in captivity.

In Sultan Kudarat, troops overran yesterday a camp of the kidnappers of a South Korean and a Filipino treasure hunter after a two-hour gunbattle in a remote barangay in Palembang town.

However, the soldiers failed to find Yoon Jae-koon and Carlos Belonio, who were snatched in Sarangani province last Feb. 4, in the headquarters of MILF commanders Tigre Jikiri and Salem Gogo.

Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Battalion, said Tigre’s men fled and abandoned the mountain enclave hours before the arrival of Army Special Forces.

"There were trenches, makeshift bunkers and other crude fortifications around their hideout and we have surmised that they had lookouts around their lair so they were able to detect the soldiers that approached them from different locations," he said.

In attacking the camp, troops clashed with 50 suspected MILF guerrillas and military officials have accused the MILF of sheltering the kidnappers.

However, Kabalu said the 120,000-strong MILF was not involved in the kidnapping and that the clashes were just "fireworks" aimed at scaring residents.

"I do not know what the military has been doing," he said. "But I guess they were really just firing at no one in particular just to show that they were in pursuit operations."

Kyamko said a court in Sultan Kudarat has ordered the arrest of Tigre – Ismael Safaar in real life – the suspected mastermind in the kidnapping of Yoon and Belonio.

Intelligence sources said there were "positive indications" that Tigre and his men had kidnapped the South Korean and Filipino.

A witness has submitted a sworn affidavit that Tigre and Gogo knew that Yoon and Belonio were in a barangay in Palembang at that time inspecting a site where Japanese troops are believed to have buried treasure near the end of World War II in 1945.

Belonio had asked Tigre’s permission to survey certain areas within MILF-controlled territory in Palembang, the witness added.

The witness said Tigre had demanded a P10 million advance in "protection money" from the two treasure hunters, which they ignored.

The witness said Tigre’s men took Yoon and Belonio at gunpoint on their way to General Santos City after stopping a van carrying them and ordering all the passenger to disembark.

Tigre is reportedly demanding a P30-million ransom for the freedom of Yoon and Belonio. — Edith Regalado, Sandy Araneta, John Unson, Paolo Romero