Mindanao: missionary who disappeared is hiding from armed men
Cagayan de Oro (AsiaNews) – The missionary who disappeared in the Philippines “went into hiding because he was being followed by armed men”. Now “he is doing well and is in a safe place, and his superiors know about it,” this according to the archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, Misamis orientale province.
Mgr Elmer Abacahin, head of the archdiocese’s media affairs office, said that Fr Lucio Bola, who disappeared three weeks ago, was seen by Fr Jun Baguio, parish priest in Siay, who talked to him.
According to him, “Fr Bola was forced into hiding when he realised that three armed men were following him. We must understand that his family has received death threats before and that this brother was killed in 1980 on suspicions of being a member of the Communist movement”.
Fr Lucio Bola, 46, is employed by the Scalabrini Seminary in the village of Pardo in Talisay, Cebu. On December 30 he left to visit his family in Mindanao, in a place near Balingasag, Misamis orientale, and spend some time with them for the Christmas holidays.
But by the next day he had vanished. The last time he was seen was on the Balingasag highway, probably waiting for a bus to take him to another city.
As soon as the authorities were notified of the disappearance, the diocese of Cagayan de Oro considered the possibility that he might have been abducted.
Eventually rumours started circulating that he had joined the rebels. The eastern part of Misamis province is a Communist rebel stronghold.
But for Mgr Abacahin, now “all these theories fall by the wayside. His superiors know where he is hiding, but the information is confidential and cannot be made public. We know that he was able to celebrate mass and that he is in good conditions”.
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