MALACAÑANG HAS ACCUSED MEDIA of giving the kidnappers of Irish missionary Fr. Michael Sinnott “propaganda mileage” for publishing a video of the priest holding a copy of the Inquirer as proof that he was still alive.

But what can media do but publish the video since it was of public interest?

What would the Palace have media do about the video?

Malacañang was angry because the video only heightened the public’s distrust in the government’s handling of kidnappings in Mindanao.

To put it bluntly, the government is useless in parts of Mindanao where there are Muslims, even if they are few.

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Pagadian City, where Sinnott was kidnapped, is a predominantly Christian community.
Yet armed Muslims, who were said to be pirates because they came by boat, went to Sinnott’s residence and took him away.

The fact is those “pirates” are members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or the Abu Sayyaf.

The government is trying to play the fool by saying that Sinnott’s kidnappers are rogue members of the MILF or the Abu Sayyaf, which are one and the same group.

What makes people in the know puke all the more is that the MILF has even volunteered to help in the search for and rescue of Sinnott.

It’s like the thief telling his victim that he would look for the guy with the stolen item and ask him to return it.

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The government should not wait for non-Muslim inhabitants of Mindanao to feel cornered and retaliate with full force.

It should prevent a repeat of what happened in the early 1970s when Christian settlers in Cotabato rose up against Muslim rebels and fought with all their might.

And since Christians outnumbered the Muslims, naturally the fight went in favor of the former.

The Muslims cried genocide.

That’s the reason Libyan strongman Muammar Khadaffy, hearing of the reported genocide in Mindanao, sent arms and financial aid to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

The fact is the Christians, banding themselves into an armed group and calling themselves ilaga (rats), had lost their patience with the oppressive Muslims and fought back.

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Do you know why the government was hesitant to jail priest-killer Norberto Manero, who was given VIP treatment while in prison until his release?

Manero led a band of Christian vigilantes now called “Ilaga” and held the MNLF at bay while the government in Manila was training troops to fight in Mindanao.

“Manero and his men held the line, Mon. They fought fiercely. They prevented Mindanao from being overrun by the MNLF,” said a retired general who fought in Mindanao as a lieutenant in the 1970s.
The government was unprepared and caught by surprise by the Muslim rebellion, he said.

Following Manero and his band, other Christians formed their own vigilante groups like the Sagrado de Jesus which made the Mindanao war in the 1970s take on religious undertones.
From Cotabato, the military used the Ilaga in other areas.

The Moros feared the Christian vigilantes whom they thought mutilated dead MNLF rebels and partook of their innards.

Like other vigilante groups used by the military to fight Muslim and communist rebels, some Ilagas became abusive, forcing the military to disband them.