Abducted PMMA female cadet escapes from captors, resurfaces in Manila—report

TABUK CITY/SAN NARCISO, Zambales—The female cadet of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) who was reportedly abducted in Zambales on Wednesday has resurfaced in Metro Manila, after she allegedly escaped from her captors at 3 a.m. on Thursday.

READ: PMMA reports abduction of female cadet

According to a report, PMMA Fourth Class Cadet Janina Bunagan Batil of Tabuk City in Kalinga also reached out to her boyfriend, however, details of her kidnapping remains sketchy, the Zambales town police said.

According to First Class Cadet Rommel Wassig, the boyfriend Clinton Siway, who was interviewed by the police, was contacted by Batil.

Quoting Siway, Wassig confirmed that his girlfriend was safe, however, he said that she had not yet given details about her abduction nor her captors, said PO3 Joseph Mar Baldo, the investigator tasked by the San Antonio police station to seek out Batil.

The academy is based in this town, however, the 18-year-old cadet was taken at a bus stop in San Antonio town at around 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to a police blotter report.

Batil had sent her mother Regina a text message claiming she was forced into a tinted van filled with children in this town, according to the police.

Regina had alerted PMMA and the Tabuk City police after her daughter telephoned her.

However, on Thursday in Tabuk City, Regina was informed that Batil had escaped from her captors and was now under the care of their relatives in Manila.

Baldo said Tabuk policemen are accompanying Batil’s parents to Manila to fetch the cadet, whom her mother described as under “a state of shock.”

An ongoing investigation is underway to determine what had happened to Batil, Baldo said. RAM