MANILA, Philippines – Spanish missionary priest Father Bernardo Blanco, who lived in the Philippines for nearly 50 years and was once kidnapped by extremists in Basilan province, died in a Quezon City hospital past midnight on Monday, March 10.
He was 97.
Born in Zamora, Spain, on November 20, 1927, Blanco was a member of the Claretian Missionaries. The Claretians are a group of priests known for spreading the Catholic faith or tending to believers in far-flung areas, including the Muslim-dominated parts of the southern Philippines.
“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of Father Bernardo T. Blanco, CMF, who departed this life at 1:02 am on March 10, 2025, at the Diliman Doctors Hospital in Quezon City. We humbly ask you to remember him in your prayers,” said the Father Rhoel Gallardo Province of the Claretian Missionaries on its website Monday.
Blanco’s first assignment in 1954 was to serve in Equatorial Guinea. After 22 years, he was, along with 52 foreign priests and 200 foreign nuns, expelled from this African country that had been placed under a dictatorship.
Blanco arrived in the Philippines on February 25, 1977, and was sent to Bolong, Zamboanga City. He was eventually moved to Maluso, Basilan, as parish priest of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish.
“Father Bernardo Blanco, CMF, faced expulsion and abduction, yet he remained unwavering in his missionary commitment. His deep devotion to the Blessed Mother gave him the fortitude necessary to navigate the numerous challenges he faced throughout his life,” the Filipino Claretians said in their obituary.
Blanco’s kidnapping on March 18, 1993, grabbed global headlines and put the spotlight on Catholic missionaries in the world’s danger zones. Seven years after Blanco was kidnapped, another Claretian missionary — Father Rhoel Gallardo, after whom the Claretians’ Philippine province was named — was abducted then killed.
The same terrorist group was linked to the abduction of Gallardo and Blanco: the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group.
‘You shoot!’
Blanco was kidnapped by extremists “affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf,” according to the Claretians. He endured 49 days in captivity.
The Spanish missionary was abducted “while driving his jeep to his parish church in Matarling Village, Isabela, 875 kilometers south of Manila in the island province of Basilan,” according to a report by the Union of Catholic Asian News in 1993.
“Coming out to attend to a personal need, the Claretian priest said he found his abductors asleep. With a full moon to guide him, he decided to walk into the forest until he reached a militia outpost,” UCAN reported.
“The priest said he ‘ran and ran’ through the forest, covering about 20 kilometers before meeting paramilitary troops in the village of Maligi,” it added, noting that it was around 4 am when Blanco met the militiamen.
“I was not mistreated,” said Blanco, who was “wearing a green shirt, gray trousers, and sandals,” hours after his escape, according to United Press International.
In a 2019 video, UCAN documented Blanco’s brief visit to Basilan around 26 years after his abduction. Blanco recalled his mindset when he was in captivity.
“What’s important is to have intimacy with God, who is present today. I keep repeating, when it is difficult, when it is easy: ‘In God, I am living; in God, I am moving; in God, I am existing,’” he said, quoting from Acts of the Apostles 17:28.
“Even when I was kidnapped, I repeated that,” he said. “That was why I was not afraid, because I offered myself totally, to tell them, ‘You shoot!’ when they pointed their armalite in front of my head. Because I wanted to pay not a single centavo. That was why I offered myself to be killed.” – Rappler.com