|PIC1|Gunmen have asked for £1.2 million to release a 79-year-old missionary kidnapped from his home in the southern Philippines.

Columban priest Fr Michael Sinnott appeared in a video released today holding a Manila newspaper dated October 22 and relaying the demand of his abductors to pay $2 million in exchange for his release.

“My kidnappers are led by commander Abu Jayad. They are asking two million US dollars as ransom money,” he said in the video.

“We are living in the open, in difficult circumstances. I am still in good health even if I do not have the full medicines.”

He also appealed in the video to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Irish government and fellow Columban missionaries “who may have pity … to help so that I can get out of here as soon as possible”.

Father Patrick O’Donoghue, the head of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban, said Fr Sinnott looked relatively healthy after seeing two photographs taken from the video, reports Agence-France Presse.

He insisted that the ransom would not be paid for the priest’s release.

“The Columban fathers do not pay ransom and we never have and I don’t think we ever would,” he said.

“I could see him (Fr Sinnott) wanting that money to be used in ways rather than ransom. That two million should rather be used for education, for the care of people with disabilities.”

While it is still not clear who is behind the priest’s abduction, the government suspects the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The MILF denies any involvement in the kidnapping.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said the Irish Government would continue working to secure the release of Fr Sinnott.

He said: “No effort will be spared to secure the release of Fr Sinnott as soon as possible.”