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Manila: A Philippine TV network has broadcast videos shot secretly by one of its crews while they were abducted by suspected Muslim militants, offering a glimpse into their jungle ordeal including threats to behead one of them.
ABS-CBN aired the videos late Sunday in a documentary titled "Kidnap," partly to help police on southern Jolo island identify the kidnappers of news anchor Ces Drilon and two cameramen, who were released last month after a ransom was paid.
Recounting her 10-day captivity, Drilon said in the documentary that she was ready to kill any militant who might have tried to rape her.
"I was thinking I would really have to kill if somebody attempted," said Drilon, a familiar face on Philippine TV for her coverage of coup attempts and Muslim insurgents in the volatile south.
"Before I slept, I looked around to check where the long knife was because I thought it would be easier to use than a gun," she said, wiping away tears.
Cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion said the kidnappers bound his hands at one point and made him kneel on the ground, preparing to behead him as a deadline loomed for the ransom payment. He said he was praying and weeping when the phone rang and the militants were told that the ransom was on the way.
The three journalists were kidnapped June 8 while hiking with a local guide in Jolo's hinterlands in a failed attempt to interview Radulan Sahiron, a commander of the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf who is being hunted by US-backed troops.
The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings and is listed as a terrorist organization by the US government.
Encarnacion said he secretly turned on his camera a few times to film their kidnappers, led by a young commander named "Teks" who frequently fiddled with his cell phone to send messages.
The mostly young-looking militants, some in ill-fitting camouflage uniforms, appeared unaware that they were being filmed. Some stood idly in the woods, their guns on the ground, while others rested in hammocks.
When one militant asked what was on his tape, Encarnacion immediately rewound it to an unused part but the camera's whirring sound made the rebel curious. "I told him the camera was just heating up because it has not been used for some time. When I played it, it was blank. They didn't know I had been shooting," he said.
The ABS-CBN senior vice president for news, Maria Ressa, said the network decided to air the videos to help authorities pursue the abductors. Police have a copy of the video, she added.
"We don't want them to do this with impunity again," she said.
National police Chief Avelino Razon said the video will help government forces track down the kidnappers.
None of the kidnappers has been captured but police have arrested a town mayor and his son who were chosen by the militants to relay their ransom demand. Police have accused the two of masterminding the kidnapping, but they have denied the allegation.
The documentary included recordings of cell phone calls made by Drilon in captivity to ABS-CBN officials, her family and a hostage negotiator. In one call, she asked
that her husband be told to update payments on her life insurance.
Drilon, who disobeyed an order from superiors to avoid the dangerous assignment, has been suspended from work for three months, Ressa said.
Drilon said she has learned her lesson well. "No story is worth losing your life for," she said.
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