13 yr-old escapes abductors, saves 2 other streetkids
At least two Cebuano-speaking male suspects with Ilonggo accomplices are feared to be on the loose in Iloilo. The purported mission? To look for "easy" kidnapping targets, not the rich kids, but public schoolchildren and streetchildren.
This, following the accounts of a 13 year-old second year high school student who told authorities of an abduction last Tuesday in San Miguel, Iloilo. He was the apparent victim along with seven others whom he said appeared to be aged 3 to 14.
In what initially began as a call for help from school officials of the Leonora Salapantan National High School here turned into a community-wide search for a missing child.
The incident first reached the teener's adviser who told The News Today (TNT) of a text message received Tuesday evening. The message sender was the boy's mother, Edelina Sabueso who was seeking her son Rossjun's whereabouts.
Word immediately spread as neighbors joined family members with the school's Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) president Angelo Racquit Jr. in searching sidestreets and farmlands.
No Rossjun was found that prompted Racquit Jr., a former broadcast journalist, to seek the public's help via Bombo Radyo Iloilo.
School authorities meantime encouraged the over 2,300 school population to go out "buddy system" and not to talk to strangers. The town police was told of Rossjun's disappearance as police patrolled the school premises for days.
Rossjun appeared three days later, tired and shaken but fortunately unhurt. He reached the family home in Barangay San Antonio Friday noon and told his mother his plight in the hands of all-male suspects.
The teener spoke yesterday with TNT and Bombo Radyo's Bernard Broniola in the presence of Racquit Jr. His mother Edelina allowed the interview as per message sent to school authorities. They wanted the public to be warned, the school adviser said, in order for precautions to be in place.
Rossjun said he was on his way to school a little over 6 a.m. when called by a short-pimpled man asking for assistance to push the supposedly stalled white Tamaraw FX. He willingly obliged yet in seconds, was pushed inside the van, mouth covered and eyes blindfolded. The van then sped off, he said, only to discover that there was apparently someone else in it. Along the way, Rossjun said, the van stopped and another child who was crying was pushed inside.
Rossjun said they were brought to a "squatter's like area" in the city and with Ilonggo speaking men were told to smoke marijuana.
There was minimal food he said that he did not eat and instead gave to two others who were younger than him.
Come nighttime though, another Ilonggo speaking man went to them and told them to go ahead and ran as fast as they could. Rossjun said he spent that night with two other captives in the "skywalk" by Marymart Mall in Delgado Street. He was warned by the "friendly" Ilonggo-speaking suspect not to tell the police so Rossjun concocted a story to a vendor that his mother left him.
For two days he said he helped a food vendor who gave him P35 and on Friday morning, an owner of one money-changer in the Marymart Mall area took pity on him and gave him P100.
That was when he said he decided to go home and took his two other new friends – aged 3 and 5 he surmised – in a Jaro Liko jeepney toward Jaro.
Rossjun said he recognized the Jaro Cathedral and knew that a jeep to Alimodian is parked there somewhere. It was the place he only recalls because of the city visits his mother would make along with him.
He had to leave the two other youngsters because the two told him they live in the area too. That was the last time Rossjun saw his new friends.
Rossjun is the youngest of six Sabueso siblings. His father is a member of the Philippine Army and currently sent to Mindanao. Sources told TNT that the father when told of the incident decided to cut short his stint and is set to arrive anytime.
Meantime, Racquit Jr. said a general assembly will be called soonest time possible to address the Sabueso abduction.
"We are definitely taking this seriously and we want to make sure that our children, especially that most only walk to school, are protected," Racquit Jr. said.
No parent nor school officials want to go on official record but talks abound here about the concern on crime groups operating towards "organ selling" and "child prostitution."