TRULY GRATEFUL

This one is a story of extremes:A tragic lose and a wonderful gain.

Loren Legarda, senator and former journalist, a colleague in my days with ABS-CBN was pregnant in the first quarter of 2002 when I was waylaid and taken hostage by a group of para-military men, all Tausugs, with insignia's of the Philippine Military's Tabak Division in Barangay Tandiong in Indanan, Sulu.

She waited long to have that third child but unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. Professor Mashur Jundam, first approached him about me during that period. She was in pain, she wasn't ready. That was sometime in February. She left the country for a while and grieved about the lose of a child she wanted to have.

When she came back, she was whole again. Her bold and daring persona, back in no time.Ready and willing to help a colleague who was in dire need of help.

Many doubted the story first. Who would kidnap the reporter known for her legendary connections with the ASG? Nah..baloney! Crap! Some even screamed oh that's a gimmick, "kidnap-me" they said. But that was because they got it wrong. They thought the Abu Sayyaf Group was the one that abducted me. Wrong.

But one reporter of one newspaper got the story correct. The first time he reported it and when my abductors read about it, that got me into trouble. The article came out in the Manila Times; MNLF Integrees behind reporters abduction. Whew--that headline got me into deeper trouble. I was made to account for that one, made to explain how that information leaked.

They thought I was able to contact someone and tell their identities, a stupid suspicion really for they're the ones in control of my cellular phone since the very night they pulled me and threw me into that pumpboat with my hands tied behind my back. (Heller?!!!!)

The truth was--I also cannot accept what was happening to me, the very moment that it did.

I was angry. I was fuming mad. Asking them questions, acting for a moment as if I was in charge and that I have all the right to interrogate."Who is your officer-in-command?" "Don't you know that I know all of your faces? That I covered you during your training in Camp Capinpin in Tanay Rizal?" Stupid me! I got into more trouble for that outrage.

Dragging me into the pump boat that night of January 20, 2002 in Barangay Tandiong in Indanan, Sulu were armed men in military uniform, stressed on Tabak Division insignias, Tausugs, members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who got integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines by virtue of the 1996 Peace Agreement.

Having covered Mindanao in 2002 for straight 12 years, having penetrated the most remote area in the jungle of Sulu and Basilan, I had this false sense of protection that I will never be touched, harmed and much less--taken hostage by any group---especially, not those clearly attached with the government forces. Not the MNLF, ... but of course I was wrong!

But alas---colleagues in the media learned the truth and wasted no time in helping me. Fe Zamora and Ma'am Letty Magsanoc of the Philippine Daily Inquirer were there for me.

My friends in the Philippine Marines searched for me and conducted actual foot patrol in the jungles of Indanan. Some of them now amongst those charge with attempting to stage a coup d' etat during the 2006 Marine Stand-Off.

The truth is---and I know this may sound so ironic and so controversial, even Khadaffy Janjalani and his men tried to locate me ---and from what I heard later, even attempted to rescue me. I was on my way to their camp in Sulu when I was waylaid by this other group of armed men who were fed with the wrong information that I was delivering ransom money for the Burnham couple at that time. A sampling of how twisted and how misguided the human intelligence networking of the authorities at that particular hostage crisis.

To those who truly cared in locating me, saving me, I am truly grateful. And I would be amiss in my duty, looking back with gratitude if I will not mention their names: The Vice President Noli De Castro, who was then still a senator and someone I can call my friend, a colleague in the media, and someone who knew me as a person, trusting his instinct that I will never ever resort to anything that is untruthful and staged and that in truth and in fact, my life was in danger at that time.

The list of people to thank is long and let me not forget to stress that on top of this long list is the name of my godmother Ninang Cherry Cobarrubias who was the one person that kept the lines of communications open and managed to turn on her side, Lakandula, one of the leaders of the MNLF renerage forces that kidnapped me, to someone close to being her ally, turning his "No" into "Yes" and his angry and threatening voice to "Opo Ninang" ("Yes Ninang").

It was her love and compassion that sustained the lines of communication, a crucial factor in any hostage situation. It was through my Ninang Cherry that I learned the sacrifice that Loren had to risk just so she could save me. Her role, her participation was pulled with utmost secrecy for as what a colonel in the Armed Forces told them, it's the only way to ensure succeess of the mission to effect my release. The colonel's warning according to my Ninang Cherry: "Never inform the brigade or you'll not ge her." A warning that was also related by Lakandula to my Ninang Cherry.

When Loren finally decided to help me, it was more than just an act of extending a hand to a colleague in a life-threatening ordeal. Her decision to help stems from the fact that she understood why I needed help, fast, urgent, ASAP: A mother has to be reunited with her kids.

“I had just suffered a miscarriage then,” Legarda recalled, “but I felt it was my Christian duty to help Arlyn. We realized that as my unborn child’s life was lost, it was redeemed by the release of Arlyn who has two girls of her own, with the youngest being only two years old when she was abducted. In the process, she got her chance back to be a mother once again." Loren said during an informal and intimate celebration of the 7th year anniversary of my release as a hostage held at the Manila Polo Club in Makati last April 28, Tuesday, a day after the exact date of my release.

Exactly 7 years ago on April 27, 2002, I literally rushed towards freedom, running as fast as I could could at the Jolo Airport and into the arms of Loren. Seven years have passed since that moment and while it feels as if it only happened yesterday, my life has never been the same after that. After that experience, I see life from a different perspective, I live each day at a time, making sure, each day is my best, that I don't fail to say I love you to those I love, my kids most specially, for really, we never know when will we breath our last.

Only a mother like Loren would understand how and why.

If not for her daring move to come to my aid---I would not have been in this stage of my life, happy, complete and fully living life with gratitude every single day.

Truly God's mercy and love works in wondrous ways and on that day, the 27th of April 2002, tapped the right person to facilitate my release.

Seven years have passed. I have long moved on. My kids and I, my family--we have moved on and forward. But in moving on with our lives, we will never ever forget to look back with gratitude.

The fact alone that I am counting the years since that episode in my life is a great blessing from the Lord.

The gift of life and freedom and the chance to be mother again. Salamat po AMA.(end)