Priest's kidnappers release video

Father Sinnott was taken hostage two weeks ago

Kidnappers holding an Irish priest hostage in the southern Philippines have released a video in which he says $2m must be paid for his release.

The video shows Wexford priest Fr Michael Sinnott, 79, holding a copy of a Manila newspaper dated 22 October.

It is the first public proof that Fr Sinnott, who needs medication for a heart condition, is alive.

Gunmen seized the Columban missionary from his mission office in Pagadian on Mindanao island on 11 October.

In the video, Fr Sinnott is pictured standing in front of a sheet or tablecloth in a forest.

"My kidnappers are led by commander Abu Jayad. They are asking $2m as ransom money,'" he said.

'Good health'

"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 then appeals to the authorities in Manila and at home along with those in his own order to help secure his safe release.

The Philippine head of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban, Fr Patrick O'Donoghue, who saw photographs taken from the video, confirmed it was Fr Sinnott and expressed relief that he was looking relatively healthy.

He said, however, that no money would be paid to secure Fr Sinnott's freedom.

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

He said Fr Sinnott would not want a ransom to be paid.

'I could see him wanting that money to be used in ways rather than ransom. That $2m should rather be used for education, for the care of people with disabilities,' he said.

Philippine authorities believe Fr Sinnott is being held by rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).