COTABATO CITY, May 30 – Marawi Bishop Edwin dela Peña on Tuesday asked President Rodrigo Duterte to heed a video recorded appeal of Fr. Teresito “Chito” Suganob, one of the hostages held by the Maute terror group in Marawi City.
Speaking over Church-run radio DXOM-AM, Bishop dela Peña asked the President and the military “to buy time and not necessarily to give in to the demands” of the Maute group.
In a five-minute video believed to be recorded using a mobile phone and uploaded on the internet, Fr. Suganob, vicar general of the vicariate of St. Mary, could be seen appealing to President Duterte to halt military air strikes and pull out the military forces in and around Marawi City.
Suganob was taken hostage by armed men along with a female professor of Mindanao State University, two female Church workers and two male and five female teachers of Dansalan College.
He said, “also held hostage by the Maute group were about 200 carpenters, house helpers, children and youth, and ordinary Christian settlers.”
Click and watch the video clip below:
