Priest abducted, chopped in TawiTawi

Sayyaf seen as behind killing of Notre Dame director

(Published in Zamboanga Today on January 17, 2008.)

(Bongao, Tawi-Tawi/16January2008)--

A school director of an educational institution run by priests under the missionary order of the Oblates of the Mary Immaculate (OMI) was abducted then killed by, after showing resistance to, his captors on Wednesday morning in Tawi-Tawi province, police reports said.

It was reported that the victim, Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda, OMI, 55 years old, was killed and his body chopped on or about 10 o’clock in the morning of Wednesday, January 15, in Tabawan Island, South Ubian, which is approximately a 4-6-hour boat ride to the capital town of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi province.

The report said that some ten heavily armed, masked men barged into the campus of the Notre Dame High School, which the priest heads. The abductors then grabbed the priest at gunpoint, and wanting to spare the security on the lives of some on-looking students and teachers, he allegedly volunteered to be the hostage. A teacher, however, remains in the hands of the abductors.

Fr. Roda was initially a victim of attempted kidnapping but initial examination showed physical resistance which could have been the cause why he was killed. The police immediately responded and went on a hot pursuit operations, after which his brutally slain body was found. His body was brought to Bongao for embalmment on Wednesday.

As of press time, the identity of the perpetrators is still unknown. Local residents in Tabawan Island believe them to be members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, who have been sending threats to the priest long before the incident happened. Such allegation however cannot be confirmed as of yesterday, but police authorities state that it is the work of the Sayyaf.

The incident was a case similar to what happened in Tumahubong, Sumisip, Basilan, in 2000, when Fr. Roel Gallardo, a Claretian priest, was abducted along with 52 students, by the Abu Sayyaf, in Claret School.

Roda is one of the more than 70 priests and more than a hundred oblates of the OMI order based in the Philippines. He heads the Notre Dame of Tabawan in Tawi-Tawi, and is among the key church leaders in Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church in the province’s capital town of Bongao.

OMI priests have long been in the Sulu and Tawi-Tawi areas. Their mission in Tawi-Tawi covers Batu-Batu, Bongao, Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi, Sitangkai, Sibutu, and Tabawan.

Meanwhile, classes in Notre Dame of Tabawan are suspended. (Frencie L. Carreon)