Fr. Teresito “Chito” Suganob walks towards a Manila-bound plane at the Lumbia airport yesterday morning. The Roman Catholic priest was freed from the Maute Group in Marawi City over the weekend, ending over 100 days of captivity. (photo courtesy of zia adiong, head, marawi crisis management committee)
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By NORA SORIÑO
GSD-Iligan bureau chief

MYSTERY continued to shroud the end of Roman Catholic priest Teresito “Chito” Soganub’s captivity as the officials and the clergyman himself were tightlipped on the circumstances that resulted in the hostage’s freedom on Saturday.

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Soganub took the plane from the Lumbia airport here and was presented to the reporters in Manila yesterday but he did not talk about his ordeal in the hands of the Isis-inspired Maute Group in strife-torn Marawi City.

Soganub, along with the parish secretary and some 10 parishioners, were taken hostage by the Maute Group when they took siege of Marawi City on May 23, 2017.

In high spirits, a smiling Soganub told reporters to “pray for me.”

The secretiveness raised more questions than answers.

Bishop Stephen Villaester, chair of the Interfaith Council for Peace in Iligan, said Fr. Soganub did not want the information about his release to be revealed.

Villaester said  Soganub did not disclose details.

Iligan Vice Mayor Jemar Vera Cruz, a Roman Catholic priest on leave, said he was able to talk with Soganub on the phone but the latter would not give details.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año told a news conference yesterday that Fr. Soganub was “rescued” but they, too, declined to give details.

Año said there were previous attempts aimed at rescuing the priest, and his “rescue” on late Saturday was a result of military intelligence work and combat operations.

Lorenzana said Soganub saw freedom at around 11:45 pm before midnight Saturday near the Bato Mosque in Marawi.

Other Roman Catholic preists hailed Soganub’s freedom after over three months in captivity.

“It is really good news. I thank the soldiers who rescued Fr. Chito and a teacher at Dansalan College. We are happy that they were rescued. It is indeed an answered prayer. We always pray for them. They are free now,” Iligan Bishop Elenito Galido told the Churchun Radio Veritas.

Galido also said he has not been informed about how the hostages were rescued.

Ozamiz Archbishop Martin Jumoad said the “power of prayer prevailed.”

“So many [were] praying for his freedom. So many Masses [were] celebrated for that intention,” he said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ website.

Jumoad added: “The power of prayer is once again shown as a witness of our solid faith in God.”

There were reports that the Maute Group was forced to abandon the Bato Mosque, which is one of the three strongholds of the terrorists recovered by the government in the past days, due to intensified military operations.

The Roman Catholic Prelature of Marawi revealed that Fr. Soganub underwent military debriefing.

The prelature said the entire Duyog Marawi team, an accompaniment journey with the people of Marawi by the Prelature in partnership with the Redemptorists,  “exploded with shouts of joy” in the midst of its monthly meeting as Fr. Nono Reteracion “read the confirmation from several military personnel.”

Initial reports on Sunday said Soganub, also the rector of the St. Mary’s Cathedral and chaplain at the Mindanao State University main campus in Marawi and another hostage escaped from their captors near the Bato Ali mosque amid heavy firefight, and that as the two were fleeing, they were identified by the military who brought them to a safer place.

A news blackout was imposed — no military official responded to the reporters’ queries since Sunday morning.

A senior official said the silence of the military was deliberate, that they had agreed that news on Soganub’s freedom be kept under wraps first as troops were still working to rescue at least 10 other hostages.

Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on the peace process, announced through his Facebook wall at 7:31 am on Sunday that Soganub was “rescued” at 11 p.m. Saturday near the Bato Ali mosque.

Dureza forwarded the information sent to him by Franklin Quijano, former mayor of Iligan City and now Phividec administrator. Quijano told MindaNews he received the information from his military sources.

Persistent media queries prompted Marine Col. Edgardo Arevalo, chief of the Armed Forces’ Public Affairs Office, to disclose earlier that soldiers had “fiercely fought five hours” before taking control of the Bato Ali Mosque and Amaitul Islamiya Marawi Foundation at 5 pm. The military described these as “two of the Maute-Isis Group’s strongholds.”

But Arevalo did not mention of Soganub’s “rescue.”

Arevalo issued a three-paragraph statement on Sunday that soldiers were carrying out rescue operations at the main battle area, and that he “cannot give you details as of now lest we imperil the lives not only of our soldiers but more so that of the hostages.”

Questions have been raised if Fr. Soganub escaped, was rescued by the military, was abandoned or released by the Maute Group, and if leaders Abdullah Maute and the Abu Sayyaf’s Isnilon Hapilon, the alleged Southeast Asian Emir of the Isis, are still in Marawi or have escaped. (with reports from mindanews and pna)

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