ZAMBOANGA CITY, 7 July 2007 — Italy’s special envoy Margherita Boniver arrived in the southern Philippines yesterday to work with local authorities for the safe release of a kidnapped Italian Roman Catholic priest.
Boniver flew to Zamboanga City after meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon in Manila.
Boniver, a lawmaker, was accompanied by Italy’s envoy to Manila, Ambassador Rubens Fedele. They were met in Zamboanga by city Mayor Celso Lobregat and Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco and met with top security officials.
She will fly to Zamboanga Sibugay province today to meet with senior military and police officials directly involved in efforts to rescue the Rev. Giancarlo Bossi, who was seized by unidentifed gunmen at the town of Payao on June 10.
Boniver said President Arroyo and senior military officials assured her that the search for Bossi was going on despite.
“I am really thankful to President Arroyo for all the efforts,” she said.
Some 2,000 troops have been sent to search for Bossi in the jungles of Zamboanga Sibugay and the nearby Lanao provinces, but the military said it has no reports about the fate of the priest so far.
Authorities have also acknowledged that the kidnappers have not made any formal demands and the priest’s group, the Papal Institute for Foreign Missions or PIME, feared he may have been killed.
“The search is still going, but we have no reports about the fate of Father Bossi,” said army Maj. Eugene Batara, a regional military spokesman.
“The number of troops that have been poured in there is sufficient to perform the rescue operations,” Bacarro said, adding that both the Italian and Philippine officials reiterated their governments’ positions of not paying ransom.
