ZAMBOANGA CITY, 3 January 2005 — A doctor who was kidnapped and held hostage by militants in the southern island of Jolo said his captors for 41 days tortured him repeatedly and treated him like an animal.
Wearing only a pair of denims and white t-shirt, Dr. Avelrio Canda, accompanied by his wife and military officials, appeared still shaken and scared as he met with reporters inside the military’s Southern Command headquarters in Zamboanga City, three days after he was released in Jolo.
“I was tortured almost everyday. They chained me like a dog and they repeatedly threatened me (with death),” he said.
“It was so terrible that I often asked God why me and what have I done wrong. There was not a single day I was without fear,” he said.
The still unidentified gunmen seized Canda inside the rural hospital of Parang town in Jolo in November and held him hostage on a mountain hideout in the same island
Canda described his captors as a gang of young men who spoke of fighting the government to achieve independence for Muslims in the southern island, about 950 kilometers from Manila. “My captors spoke about attaining independence and they told me to prepare myself. They said they kidnapped me because I am a Christian and that I was lucky because they only need ransom money and did not kill me just like the other victims in the past. I was so scared and what I had gone through is the worst ordeal in my whole life,” Canda said.
Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said the hostage was freed apparently when troops had surrounded the kidnappers’ hideout.
“A special operations team, accompanied by an informant, penetrated the hideout purposely to rescue Canda, but he was freed before troops could move in,” he said.
Army Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of an anti-terrorist task force in Jolo, said the kidnappers fled on seeing a small advance team of soldiers. “They abandoned Canda on seeing the soldier and the informant. Probably they thought the main attack force had arrived, and so we recovered the hostage,” Dema-ala said.
Police also said the kidnappers were forced to set their captive free upon learning of a massive government rescue operation.
Superintendent Anuddin Jalad, the island’s police chief, said Canda was recovered by civilians late Thursday in the village of Bunot in Indanan town and led him to authorities.
“There was too much heat so the kidnappers freed the victim,” Jalad said.
Canda has yet to say if he has any plans of returning to Parang, considered one of the hardship posts by government doctors.
Jolo, one of the most depressed provinces in the Philippines, is being avoided by government doctors because of the violence and presence of kidnap gangs.
With the number of doctors joining the government service getting smaller and smaller because of poor pay, only those with a high level of heroism dare go to the hardship posts.
Even volunteer workers from non-government organizations, who are in southern Mindanao to help the poor communities, are not spared by kidnap-for-ransom gangs masquerading as freedom fighters.
In early November just before Canda’s abduction, bandits seized volunteer worker Andrea Cianferoni of the Italian NGO Movimondo in Lanao del Norte province.
Cianferoni was later freed unharmed and without ransom when fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in conjunction with government forces, threatened to attack the bandits.
