"Follow the sunset"

Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews
Saturday, 21 June 2008 10:11

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/21 June) – Professor Octavio Dinampo fell seven times, two of them he considers “bad fall,” as he and the ABS-CBN crew led by senior reporter Ces Drilon were “made to climb more than 30 hills and mountains and valleys” while in the hands of their kidnappers from June 8 to 17.

Fortunately, X-ray procedures taken Friday afternoon showed he sustained no fracture, an announcement that made the 51-year old professor smile. His eyes looked a bit watery when Dr. Teodulfo Barnuevo replied “yes” to the question if he could be allowed to have a massage.

“At first I thought I was alright but when the fatigue set in, that’s when I felt every part of my body aching,” Dinampo, chair of the Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus (MPC) said upon arrival at the Davao International Airport mid-morning Friday.

Even before the abduction, Dinampo had already been suffering from gout. And while he asked Drilon and her crew not to walk fast so he could catch up, “after saying yes, sometimes they forget.”

He felt his feet swelling “when we were already released.”

Dinampo, whom Drilon contacted to arrange for an “exclusive interview” with Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron, Drilon and Encarnacion were freed at around 11 p.m. June 17.

Less than 24 hours later, the ABS-CBN crew got medical attention at the Presidential Suite of the Medical City in Pasig while Dinampo remained in military custody for what MPC secretary-general Mary Ann Arnado, a lawyer, said was a “prolonged debriefing” at the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City.

The softspoken Dinampo was finally free at noon of June 19. He stayed in an economy hotel overnight and boarded the early morning flight to Davao City on June 20 with wife Hainatul and MPC council member Liza Ugay.

He arrived at the Davao Doctors Hospital at around noon and while having the preliminary examination at the emergency room, was welcomed by DDH President Dr. Dominador Cabrera.

“Sana may ganito sa bundok,” the professor laughed when an orderly asked him to sit on the wheelchair so he could be taken to the X-ray department and later, to a private room, where he was supposed to have been a confidential patient.

The MPC officials, however, allowed the media a few minutes of interview.

“This is my second life,” he had said, earlier in the morning. “I would consider Davao my second home,” the Jolo-based professor, said.

But Dinampo is returning home soon after his medical examination, meeting and psychosocial debriefing here.

“Definitely because I could not, I should not hide from lawless elements because that will only encourage them to do more harm. We have to face it. And I have no job except in Sulu. Even if they offer me another one, I think I would still return and continue my work and this time I will be doubled and this time I will go directly to the community, no longer through a particular group,” Dinampo said.

He said he had “no idea how much amount” was paid for ransom but heard over the radio that P5 million was paid for the release of assistant cameraman Angelo Valderrama.

For nine nights and ten days, he kept the hostaged team’s spirits up.

A very spiritual person, Dinampo said he would give pep talk to Drilon and company. When he wanted to convey a message he didn’t want the kidnappers to understand, he would talk to them in English.

He would repeatedly tell Drilon and company to be in high spirits although sometimes, when Drilon noticed he was feeling low, she would give the professor the pep talk.

But he managed to repeatedly tell the team not to walk so fast “because we have to anticipate some shooting and that rule is if that’s going to happen, we drop, we roll, we crawl and we run and we run and we run and follow the sunset.”

“Sunset,” he explained, was towards the direction of Jolo.

“What if it’s evening, Prof? What if the sun had set?” he remembers Drilon asking.
”Just remember where the sunset was,” he replied.

Located at the western part of the Philippines, Jolo is famous for its glorious sunset.

At one point, he said, he asked “Is this my end, God? Is this the end for me?” It was Friday the 13th and he had just had his first decent bath and he “felt very clean.”

MPC colleagues who were in Jolo to welcome Dinampo as soon as they were released on June 17, said the professor told them, “second life, second life,” as they hugged him.

Before they were flown to Zamboanga dawn of June 18, he managed to have a few minutes’ reunion with his wife and three of their children. He has yet to see his six other children. There simply was no time as they were released midnight.

But in this, his “second life,” he says he will find time for his family, and for his peace advocacy,” the kidnapping notwithstanding, “we are going to double or even triple it.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)