Flor could not believe she was free

MANILA, Philippines - Marites Flor woke up in disbelief when she was roused by her captor, who pushed her and untied her feet.

“Gising, gising, ihahatid kita (Wake up, wake up. I am going to accompany you),” Flor quoted her Abu Sayyaf captor as saying, as she narrated events leading to her release to president-elect Rodrigo Duterte yesterday.

Flor attended the turnover of command ceremony of the Davao City Police with Duterte as guest of honor.

Flor was released from captivity by the Abu Sayyaf a week after her Canadian boyfriend was beheaded by the gunmen.

Flor was among four people abducted nine months ago by the Abu Sayyaf from Samal island resort.

Flor’s partner, Robert Hall, was beheaded after a ransom deadline lapsed last week and following a similar killing of the other Canadian John Ridsdel in April.

The fate of Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad, who was abducted along with the three, remained unknown. The Abu Sayyaf is demanding a P300 million ransom for his release.

The Abu Sayyaf turned over Flor through an emissary and brought her to the house of Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan II before she was turned over to the custody of the military’s Joint Task Force Sulu early yesterday.

During the turnover ceremony, Duterte revealed the efforts to free Flor and Sekkingstad.

Duterte said the negotiators managed to secure the freedom of Flor.

Details on how Flor was released were not immediately known but sources said P50 million was paid by negotiators to the bandits.

The ransom money was intended to secure the release of Sekkingstad not of Flor, sources said.

“The negotiators were double-crossed by the bandits,” the source said, referring to a non-government organization based in Sulu that negotiated for the release of the Norwegian hostage.

The source said the NGO was commissioned by the family of Sekkingstad and by Norwegian authorities to negotiate for the release.

At the task force headquarters, Flor narrated her ordeal in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

Flor said there were several times that she was beaten by her guards.

Flor said they were constantly on the move, trekking through several areas in the mountains of Sulu to evade the pursuing government troops.

“We always march at night. Often it was so dark and I never knew the places we have been,” she said.

Flor said they were always handcuffed by their captors to prevent them from escaping whenever they sensed the troops were closing in.

Flor turned emotional in narrating her nine-month ordeal, especially during the last few days before Hall was beheaded by their captors.

“I can’t be strong and can’t hold it with the experience I have in nine months, the experience I went through with my fiancée for eight months yet he was beheaded. It was really painful,” she said.

Flor said she was not aware that she would be freed until she was separated from Sekkingstad the other day.

Flor said she only found out that she would be freed when the leader of the bandit group woke her and told her to hurry up.

“I was not afraid. I really believed they were going to set me free,” Flor said in Filipino.

The next thing she knew, she was dropped off in front of the Sulu governor’s house early in the morning.

She was then flown to the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) headquarters in Zamboanga City where she underwent medical checkup and stress debriefing. 

Flor narrated the incidents surrounding Hall’s beheading.

Although she did not actually see how the bandits cut Hall’s neck, Flor said she witnessed how the bandits dragged him away from her. She said from a distance, she had sensed that they had already killed him.

“Masaya sila kung may pinugutan sila ng ulo (They’re happy when they behead someone),” Flor said of the incidents when the two Canadians were killed separately.  – With Jaime Laude, Aurea Calica