“Prayers and faith in God saved me!”
This was the emphatic statement made by Ledejie Tomarang,
18, who dashed to freedom in a daring do-or-die escape on Monday after being
held hostage by Abu Sayyaf terror group in the jungles of Sulu for 113 days.
This writer was the first media man to interview Miss
Tomarang over the phone Monday night -- 10 hours after she escaped from her
captors in the boundary of Barangays Kagay and Sawaki, Indanan town in Sulu.
“It was past 7 a.m. when all of a sudden we heard a loud
boom in the area where the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) held two of us hostages -- me
and an innocent three-year-old boy, Eggie Garban,” Tomarang said.
“The next time I noticed, our hostage takers, the Abu Sayyaf
scampered to all directions, rattled of the explosion. Upon seeing them
running, I also ran away,” she said.
“Then I spotted from a distance soldiers firing their guns
at the Abu Sayyaf terrorists who were confused over what was going on,” she
added.
“Seeing the rare opportunity, I took the chance to escape. I
was scared but I continued running for my life. For me it was now or never,”
Tomarang said.
“I slowed for a while and turned around to see if my
kidnappers were following me, but there was none,” she said.
Col. Alan Arrojado, commander of Joint Task Group Sulu
(JTGS), earlier ordered a military operation upon receiving an intelligence
report that Abu Sayyaf terrorists were holding their hostages in Kagay and
Sawaki in Indanan.
According to the teenage hostage victim, she was exhausted
after wandering the jungle of Indanan for about an hour until she saw a
civilian and asked for his help.
She told the civilian, whom she did not identify, that she
just escaped from her Abu Sayyaf captors.
“I begged him to bring me to the nearest military outpost
which he did and I profusely thanked him for his kindness,” Tomarang said.
“The civilian even gave me food to eat and water to drink
and asked me to rest for a while because I was exhausted. I did and after an
hour he brought me to a military camp in Bud Dato, the highest mountain peak in
Sulu,” Tomarang said.
The 18-year-old lass said, “During my 113 days of captivity,
I always prayed to God to help me return to my parents who are so worried of
me, and I say God heard and answered my prayers as always.”
Miss Tomarang, a Christian, thanked God for saving her life
from the hands of the Abu Sayyaf terrorists.
She recalled that she was kidnapped by the ASG bandits on
March 30 this year in her hometown of Pitogo, Zamboanga del Sur where she was
on a summer job in a bakery shop.
She said that while inside the bakery, heavily armed Abu
Sayyaf terrorists arrived, terrorizing the residents in the area.
“They pointed their guns at me, so I was helpless. Besides,
I am just a 17-year-old girl at that time,” Tomarang said.
“I was caught by surprise that before I knew it, the
terrorists seized me and brought me to the seashore nearby where they put me in
their motorboat,” Tomarang recalled that fateful day in her life.
“The owner of the bakery was able to slip to an adjacent
room of the bakery, but I was left all alone,” she said.
“During the kidnapping incident as the whole town was in
panic when the Abu Sayyaf terrorists were firing their guns, they also snatched
three-year-old Eggie Garban, who was crying and crying looking for his parent,”
Tomarang related.
She also said that a two-year-old girl was killed in the
indiscriminate firing of the Abu Sayyaf during the kidnapping.
From Pitogo town, she and the boy were brought to Indanan,
Sulu.
Tomarang said she celebrated her 18th birthday last May
inside the Abu Sayyaf hideout in Indanan.
During her 113 days ordeal, she always prayed to God to save
her and Eggie.
Tomarang said she did not know what happened to Eggie when
she dashed to freedom in a daring escape from her captors on Monday which, she
said, she will never forget all her life.
She underwent debriefing by the military and was examined by
doctors before she was brought back to Zamboanga del Sur.
Doctors gave her a clean bill of health despite being held
captive for 113 days.
From Sulu, Tomarang was escorted by soldiers led by Army
Capt. Evelyn Audencial back to her hometown in Pitogo, where she met again her
family for the first time since she was kidnapped more than three months ago.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=784834
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