Girl in chains turns up at Army HQ, puzzles soldiers, execs

ZAMBOANGA CITY—An unidentified girl with an estimated age of 15-18 years old turned up on Thursday at an Army headquarters in Patikul town in Sulu province, in chains.

The girl, according to Col. Allan Arrojado, looked “physically and mentally distressed.”

She had bruises all over the body, said Arrojado, head of the Joint Task Force Sulu, a team of policemen and soldiers formed to fight criminality in the province, a known lair of the terror group Abu Sayyaf and followers of fugitive Moro leader Nur Misuari.

Arrojado’s description of the girl was limited, though, except that she was about 5 feet in height and has a fair complexion.

“We suspect that she could be a kidnap victim,” Arrojado added.

He said the woman arrived at the headquarters of the Army’s 32nd Infantry Battalion in the village of Pansul in Patikul around 7 p.m. The girl, he said, hardly spoke.

Chains bound her hands and right foot and the girl was incoherent, added the military officer.

He said after removing the chains and providing her clothes and food, soldiers moved the girl to the military’s trauma hospital in downtown Jolo.

Arrojado said doctors had recommended that the girl be brought to a psychiatrist. “She’s not mentally stable,” he said.

Arrojado said his unit is also coordinating with other law enforcement agencies in Sulu and nearby provinces to help determine the girl’s identity after the village chair of Pansul said the girl was not a resident of the area. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao