MANILA, Philippines—Ces Drilon herself calls Sen. Loren Legarda her “lifeline” while she and her team were in captivity.

For Legarda, finding the right connection to the kidnappers and being firm with them was the key to her eighth successful negotiation.

She said Mayor Alvarez Isnaji of Indanan, Sulu, was the “key” to the negotiation because he was acceptable to the kidnappers. But she had to “manage” him to say the right, firm things to secure the unconditional release of Drilon and the other captives.

Legarda said she herself had spoken with the kidnappers about five times on Drilon’s phone.

The senator talked with the Philippine Daily Inquirer late Wednesday. This was how she recounted the turn of events:

June 9, Monday: Journalist Arlyn dela Cruz phoned Legarda to relay the request of ABS-CBN’s Charie Villa to help secure the release of Drilon and her team.

Tuesday: Villa was calling but Legarda missed the calls because she was busy at the Senate.

Thursday and Friday: Maria Ressa phoned to ask Legarda to help. Legardas asked if there was an ongoing negotiation and was told there was none but there were efforts by ABS-CBN and the police.

‘Get us out’

Saturday: Drilon phoned. Legarda thought Drilon sounded OK, but the latter said: “Yes, but please get us out.”

Said Legarda: “So I called up some people—[Sulu] Vice Gov. Lady Anne Sahidulla, my kumare, I don’t know who I called first. They said their main link is Mayor [Alvarez] Isnaji. I’ve met him several times because he’s LMP (League of Municipalities of the Philippines). Then I called Dr. [Mashur Bin Ghalib] Jundam, dean of the UP Islamic Studies Center, who was instrumental in the release of Arlyn, and others I cannot name.

“I also called up [the former Moro National Liberation Front lost command] Lakandula, captor of Arlyn, whom I called up through Jundam, just to know the situation on the ground.” [Arlyn, a regular Inquirer contributor, was kidnapped in Jolo in 2002.]

Then Legarda started talking to Isnaji with instructions on what to tell the kidnappers.

Drilon sent a text message on that day: “The person holding my phone says he is not authorized [to talk]. Please send my love to my mom.”

“In the meantime, Ces was calling me. She called me every hour and she would put me on speaker phone. Then I would cajole, appeal, castigate the captors,” she said.

‘Bigay pera’

Legarda said she heard the kidnappers in the background asking for money and egging Drilon to demand money. She heard varying amounts ranging from P15 million to P20 million.

“O sige na, bigay pera, bigay pera, kausapin mo pamilya mo,” she heard the kidnappers saying.

The senator told Drilon: “I will convey it to your family but I doubt it, Ces. There’s nothing coming, maski manigas na sila sa bundok.”

“Ces said, ‘Help me na, maski mangutang na ako sa ABS-CBN.’

“I said, ‘But if you give them once, they’ll always ask. It’s going to be a never-ending cycle.

“The negotiator has to be firm. I told them without promising anything in the future that the whole situation would be alleviated if they stopped doing these things, because no business, no investment, will come in [to Mindanao] if they do these things.

“Then I was pressuring the mayor who had moral suasion over them. He is a mayor, a former MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front), and the parents of these guys could have been MNLF like him.”

From Saturday to Tuesday, Legarda was pressuring the kidnappers through Isnaji.

Military shelling

Sunday: Legarda flew to Zamboanga City to hold private meetings with her other contacts to verify the situation on the ground.

Said the senator: “Things looked well and there was supposed to be an instant release when I went [there], I won’t say how or what. But the talks collapsed and at 7 p.m., I found myself going back to Manila instead of staying overnight because they were supposed to have been released the next day.”

At 6:24 a.m. of Sunday, Drilon sent her this text message: “Thanks so much, Loren, am OK. I have faith in all of you, we will await news from you. Call the mayor by 9 a.m. Thanks for talking to my sister, Charie, my mom, Maria. Give them my love.”

Legarda said the kidnappers had agreed to release Drilon and her companions:

“In the morning of Sunday, they would have been released but the kidnappers refused because there was [military shelling in nearby areas] and they might get hit. So we were back to zero on Monday.”

Isnaji wanted to withdraw last Monday (June 16) because he was being suspected of involvement in the kidnapping, but Legarda told him to stay on.

The kidnappers gave an ultimatum of 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Crying and screaming

Tuesday 7:30 a.m., Drilon phoned, crying and screaming that the kidnappers were slapping her.

“Umiiyak, humihiyaw, sabi nya, ‘Sinasampal na ako and Jimmy is tied and he’s going to be beheaded anytime. Loren, help me, they’re asking, can you give money?’” Legarda said. “I said I’m not in any condition to commit anything regarding that. I am appealing for your unconditional release.”

She told Drilon to put her on the speaker phone and she told the kidnappers to untie Encarnacion:

“Tanggalin mo ang tali. It’s for your own good that you don’t touch Jimmy, that you don’t touch Ces. Then I explained how they’re being closed in on by the military and police and they better release them. Sila din mahihirapan.

“They were giving a 2 p.m. deadline on that day but I was confident they were bluffing and they would not [behead them],” she said.

But Drilon and Encarnacion later told her the kidnappers were serious and had taken out a long knife.

“Inilabas na ang itak, talagang pupugutan sila,” she said, adding that a 12-year-old was holding the weapon.

Burning the lines

Legarda was also burning the lines with Isnaji and he told her: “Let it pass.”

“Then when they extended the deadline, I saw their weakness,” she said. She told Isnaji that they should wait. “I saw their sign of weakness and I told them, palayain na lang kundi tepok sila (let the captives go or they’re done for).

“I don’t know what happened. They said minura ko daw sila (I cursed them), my voice was loud, and then they [turned] off the phone.”

Encarnacion later told her that what she said was the kidnappers were nakakainis, mga mukhang pera (only after money), and the kidnappers were incredulous at being told off in that way: “Mukha daw tayong pera?”

Legarda continued: “One hour later Ces called me; they had untied Jimmy. So I don’t know the psychology of those people. They were very young—15 to 17 years old. They cannot talk at length, they are not communicative, and they have not been schooled.

“And when nothing came, they felt fidgety and then suddenly there was a breakthrough. Suddenly there was light Wednesday afternoon.”

‘We’re going down’

Isnaji told Legarda that Drilon et al. were being released at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

Then Drilon called her: “We’re going down.” She said they walked for five hours. Fifteen minutes before she reached the mayor’s house, she called again.

Said Legarda: “Isnaji informed me and other people close to him, whom I will not name now. So I knew what was happening. At 6 p.m., they started going down but it was confirmed to me at 10:30 p.m. The mayor was monitoring; there was a turnover from the rebels to the Indanan police, but I was not content until I get them.

“Then midnight, Ces called me to say she was in the house of Mayor Isnaji.”

As the captives left, some of the kidnappers were saying things like “I love you, Loren.”

“So my role was to coordinate and manage Mayor Isnaji, to really prod him because there were many lines to the captors,” Legarda said.

“But I think he was the direct line to the captors, to push him, and to urge him to pressure them to release [the captives]. While there were many conduits, he has the direct line because he is the mayor and is a former rebel as well.

“Before I came in, there was no one pressuring him or managing him or coaching him to pressure the captors. I think he was the key.”

‘Who would pay?’

Legarda said there was no ransom paid, as far as she knew:

“Whether [Isnaji] had the money or not, he did not tell me. It’s always possible, but I don’t want to speculate or judge. And who would pay ransom, the family? From the beginning he was suspected already; that’s why he was withdrawing. But assuming that he’s not completely clean, he was the necessary cog.

“While he was crucial, no one could identify him and he knew how to use his position, so somebody needed to focus and tell him what to do.”

Legarda said she did not really promise livelihood projects to the kidnappers, but just told them in general that the government could give assistance to alleviate the plight of the poor in Mindanao.

10 other contacts

But apart from Isnaji, Legarda talked to about 10 other people, “not incumbent officials, who are professionals,” who gave her information and even talked to the kidnappers separately from Isnaji.

Her experience in kidnapping negotiations and her credibility with the Muslims (she is an honorary Muslim princess) worked to her advantage.

“I was involved and not emotional about it, and I know what to do. I knew how to manage Isnaji. I was focused. And during times of crises, I am strong,” Legarda said.

But she added that she could not have done it alone. She believes that physical and political pressure forced the kidnappers to free the captives.