Just after evening prayers, the cloistered silence of the hilltop Carmelite convent in Marawi City was shattered by shouts and shrieks. Thirteen armed men barged in and took ten Filipino nuns hostage. Less than 24 hours later, another group of men grabbed Brian Lawrence, an American Protestant missionary living at the Mindanao State University near the Carmelite convent.
And so once again, Philippine President Corazon ("Cory") Aquino, fresh from swatting down a mosquito revolution of Marcos supporters in Manila three weeks ago, was confronted with another potentially dangerous crisis. The motives behind last week's snatchings were muddled in the curious combination of banditry and political activism that has turned kidnaping into a minor industry in the predominantly Muslim province of Lanao del Sur in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
The kidnapers' demands mixed greed with politics. They called for $50,000 in ransom and the reinstatement of a local official dismissed during political purges after Aquino came to power. But their most important demand was very simple. One kidnaper told the nuns, "It's not you we are after. It's Cory. We want her to pay attention to us."
Until the kidnaping, Aquino had ignored the Muslim separatist problem in Mindanao. Pushed into action, she ordered the army to "settle once and for all Lanao's problem of warlordism." The warlord that Aquino apparently had in mind was Ali Dimaporo, a Marcos loyalist who was dismissed as Governor of Lanao del Sur after Aquino took power and who, according to intelligence reports, commanded the loyalties of the kidnapers. Dimaporo denied his involvement.
While Aquino talked tough, her aides worked quietly to secure the release of the hostages. The kidnapers of the nuns quickly cut the price of the ransom to $5,000 and then, six days after the abduction, released them. The government says no ransom was paid, but others say the kidnapers netted at least $10,000. The following day, Lawrence was freed. Princess Tarhata Alonto Lucman, the head of an important Muslim family, helped arrange his release.
The nuns praised their captors, who allowed them to pray seven times a day, as required by the rules of the Carmelite order. The nuns, who had luggage boys to carry two guitars, five umbrellas and extra clothes, later called the experience a "picnic."
Aquino, eager to defuse a genuine political crisis in Mindanao, ordered Muslim Affairs Minister Candu Muarip to study a 1976 agreement between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front that ended a separatist rebellion in Mindanao. Negotiations over implementing the agreement broke down in 1977, and Muslim activists claim the Marcos government reneged on a promise to grant autonomy to Mindanao. Said Professor Asiri Abubakar, of the University of the Philippines: "It's about time that the Aquino government gets a good grasp of the Muslim situation before it explodes again."