Photo taken from the Facebook post of Fr. Eliseo Mercado (left) with Fr. Teresito “Chito” Soganub (right) on Friday (Aug. 10) at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cotabato City.
COTABATO CITY -- Fr. Teresito "Chito" Soganub, the Roman Catholic priest taken hostage by local terror groups that laid a five-month siege to Marawi City last year, is in town to get his birth and baptismal certificates.
Soganub, speaking over a local radio station Friday, said he is set to go to the local civil registry office and Immaculate Conception Cathedral for his authenticated certificate of live birth and baptismal documents, respectively.
“Yes, I was born and baptized in Cotabato City,” Soganub said to the surprise of many Cotabateños. He said he needed the documents for upcoming speaking engagements abroad.
The cleric was quick to add though that shortly after his baptism here, the Soganubs moved to Norala, South Cotabato, where he and his siblings grew up.
“We have distant relatives here but I could hardly recall them,” he said.
Soganub noted that he remains under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder following his ordeal in Marawi.
“I am currently undergoing psychiatric and psychological healing,” he said. Due to his current condition, Soganub said he has no assigned parish at the moment, although he manages to officiate mass in places he visits.
Soganub caught national public attention when he was taken as one of many hostages by the Islamic State-linked Maute and Abu Sayyaf terror groups at the start of the Marawi siege on May 23, 2017.
After being held captive for 117 days, he was rescued by government forces near a mosque in the war zone on Sept. 16 last year, towards the end of the battle to retake Marawi.
Shortly after the death of militant leaders Omar Maute and Isnilon Hapilon, the city was declared by President Rodrigo Duterte as liberated from the hands of terrorist influence on Oct. 17, 2017.
Soganub was parish priest at the St. Mary’s Cathedral in Marawi City when the siege broke out. (PNA)
