MANILA (SE): “I am physically strong and sound,” CNS reported Father Chito Soganob as telling a press conference at military headsquarters at Camp Aguinaldo, Manila, The Philippines, on September 18 as day after news of his rescue from captivity in Marawi broke.
 
Father Soganob, the vicar general of Marawi, had been held captive by Islamic State-inspired Maute group since conflict erupted in the city on May 23. 
 

MANILA (SE): The fate of Father Chito Soganub, who along with several dozen others from his parish and teachers and students from a nearby school, was kidnapped in the first move of the Maute Group in taking over the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines on May 23, is still unknown.
 

MANILA (SE): People who have been forced to flee the besieged city of Marawi took to the streets of Manila at the end of August in protest against the imposition of martial law in their island of Mindanao and demanded that the national government pull its head out of their governance affairs.
 
Muslim Mindanao has long been pushing for the right of self-determination and the people want to have the last say in how the rehabilitation of their mostly destroyed city is managed.
 

 
Get political
DHAKA (UCAN): “Now, the signs of the times demand that Christians need active political engagement to serve the community and the nation better,” Patrick Cardinal D’Rozario, the archbishop of Dhaka, said on July 17.
 

MANILA (SE): Once more we have a war and once more we hear the cry of War, never again! this time from the bishops of The Philippines as they reflect on the siege in Marawi at their plenary gathering at the Pius XII Centre in Manila from July to 8 to 10.
 
This time their cry is, “War in Marawi, never again!” but as they go on to call for a return to normalcy, many people in the beleaguered island of Mindanao wonder whether war and violence that has been their way for decades has become the normal of the day.
 

ZAMBOANGA (SE): “Why Marawi?” is a question that despite the widespread discussion on the siege which has been going on in the predominately Muslim city in Lanao del Sur on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao has remained an allusive one.
 
However, an Islamic-Christian community group based in Zamboanga, the Silsilah (an Arabic word meaning link) Dialogue Movement, says that it is a question that can no longer be ignored.
 

MANILA (SE): It was a long wait for the beleaguered people of The Philippines, but after a series of disasters and tragedies Pope Francis has finally expressed his solidarity with all those affected by the violence and assured the people of Mindanao of his prayers.
 
Pope Francis gave his message to Archbishop Martin Jumoad at the Pallium Mass on the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul at the Vatican on June 29.