Manila (Fides Service) - The kidnapping and release of sixteen bus passengers yesterday in Zamboanga Sur in Mindanao southern Philippines which caused great alarm among the local people was happily concluded without any dead or injured. The passengers, all women and children, were taken hostage by three armed men who boarded the bus. When the bus reached the town of Pagadian, men asked for a priest to come on board thinking perhaps that his presence would ‘guarantee’ their journey to Ipil. Instead of a priest the local Catholic Bishop Emmanuel Cabajar volunteered to join the bus hoping to obtain the release of the passengers.
A few hours later while the bus was still on the way to Ipil, the Bishop’s hopes came true: the kidnappers got off the bus and fled leaving the women and children and the bishop unharmed. According to the local police the kidnappers were common criminals rather than a gang of the communist or Muslim rebel groups which operate in Mindanao.
