MNLF help sought for release of kidnapped minister

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a religious missionary group that has priests in the strife-torn province of Sulu, has asked the Moro National Liberation Front to help secure the release of one of its lay ministers and his wife who were abducted in Jolo town Sunday.

Father Eliseo Mercado, director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, said he was convinced MNLF forces in Sulu, a known stronghold of the Moro group, could help locate Bonifacio Salinas and wife Claire.

The couple was heading for home in a pedicab from the Jolo port when gunmen, identified by local military and police officials as members of the Abu Sayyaf Group,  forced them to move to another vehicle and sped away.

Salinas is an active Catholic lay minister and a member of the Knights of Columbus, Jolo chapter, while his wife is an active volunteer church worker. Salinas works at the Jolo Water District.

“We are appealing to all people of goodwill, and to the MNLF, to help secure the safe release of the couple;  they are ordinary Church workers and have no known enemies,” Mercado said.

Amid threats of kidnapping and harassment, OMI missionaries have been working in various missionary programs for Muslims and Christians in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi since the end of World War II.