DUBLIN (AP) — An Irish Catholic priest kidnapped in the Philippines a month ago has been freed unharmed and neither country paid any ransom, Irish and Filipino authorities announced Wednesday night.
Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said the Rev. Michael Sinnott "displayed great forbearance ... in spite of his age and difficult health."
"He is clearly a man of great resilience, strength and courage and we wish him well as he seeks to recover from such a trying ordeal," said Irish President Mary McAleese, who called Sinnott's freedom the answer to the shared prayers of millions in both countries.
And Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the government would help the 79-year-old priest enjoy "a speedy reunion with his family and friends."
Six armed men abducted the 79-year-old priest Oct. 11 from his missionary home on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, escaped by speedboat, and took him into the jungle.
Officials had feared that Sinnott could suffer a fatal heart attack because he was still recovering from heart-bypass surgery. Rumors persisted that he had died in captivity.
The senior military commander in Mindanao, Major Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, confirmed that Sinnott was being debriefed by Filipino hostage-rescue specialists in a military camp. He said Philippine authorities paid no ransom.
In Dublin, Martin declined to detail how the priest won his freedom other than to call the achievement "the successful conclusion of a major diplomatic effort by the Irish and Philippine governments." He also credited the U.S. government, other European Union nations with embassies in Manila, and the International Committee of the Red Cross with playing a role.
The Philippine government said it had received demands from Sinnott's unidentified captors for $2 million in ransom but, like the Irish, stressed that paying anything would only encourage more kidnappings in rebel-threatened Mindanao.
Martin said paying a ransom "would only have jeopardized the vital work of aid workers and missionaries around the world. It would also place other Irish citizens in danger."
Sinnott's abductors have never been identified publicly. Some officials in the Philippines pinned blame on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels, who have been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Muslims in the predominantly Catholic nation's south. But the rebels denied involvement and said they, too, would use their contacts to seek the priest's freedom.
At least two other Irish Catholic priests have been targeted by kidnappers in the southern Philippines. In 1987 a priest was held for 12 days by Islamic militants before being released unharmed, but four years later another priest was shot to death when he resisted his abductors.
In June 2007, kidnappers with links to Moro rebels held an Italian priest for 33 days.
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Associated Press Writer Hrvoje Hranjski in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
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