ZAMBOANGA - The Philippine military said Friday it knew exactly where an elderly kidnapped Irish priest was being held on a remote southern island and contact had been made with his abductors.

Five days after 79-year-old Michael Sinnott was snatched at gunpoint from his missionary compound, the military's statements appeared to offer some hope for the ailing priest, who suffers from heart problems.

"The kidnappers have sent... some feelers," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, the top military official in the region, told reporters in this southern Philippine city. "The contact was more on medicine."

He would not elaborate on whom the kidnappers contacted, or give their identities. But the announcement appeared to show the abductors had responded to warnings that Sinnott's life was in danger without daily medication for his heart problems.

Local officials handling the crisis had sent pamphlets into the area expressing concern over Sinnott's health, Dolorfino said.

Sinnott was taken at gunpoint from his home at the Missionary Society of Saint Columban compound in Pagadian City on Mindanao island on Sunday night.

The military said a local pirate had taken him by boat east to the Lanao coast and may have turned him over to a local leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Muslim separatist rebel group.

The MILF leadership has denied any of its commanders were involved, and insists it is helping to secure Sinnott's release.

Dolorfino said Friday that his troops knew where Sinnott was being held, but they were not going to be sent in to rescue him until all peaceful options were exhausted.

"We have already located the exact place where Father Sinnott was taken," he said.

"We are not conducting a rescue operation because we want to give a chance for the peaceful recovery of the hostaged priest."

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner later said Sinnott was believed to be in Sultan Naga Dimaporo, a remote coastal town about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Pagadian.

The area is a known stronghold of the MILF, while armed gangs and the Muslim Abu Sayyaf militant group are also known to operate in the often lawless region.

The head of the Columban missionaries in the Philippines, Patrick O'Donoghue, denied media reports that the abductors had contacted the order.

"There has been no contact with me," he told AFP, adding that if some other member of the order had been contacted he would have been informed about it.

He said it was possible the kidnappers would seek to relay messages to the church through "intermediaries," but no one had told him of such a development.