ILIGAN CITY—Sean Francis Sereño and Joy Frias were with four other construction workers when they were trapped in Marawi City on May 23 as members of the Maute terror group, aided by Abu Sayyaf bandits, attacked the city.
Last week, more than two weeks after the fighting in Marawi started, only Sereño and Frias made it out of the battle zone alive. Two of their companions were shot dead by armed men while another drowned as they tried to dodge enemy bullets. Their foreman was held captive by Maute gunmen, his fate uncertain.
Their road to freedom was fraught with terror as they faced members of the group sowing terror in the predominantly Muslim provincial capital of Lanao del Sur.
Start of ordeal
Sereño, 21, said they were at the compound of the Pandapatan family in Marawi, where they were constructing a building, when they heard bursts of gunfire on May 23.
Their employer, Nashrudin Pandapatan, gathered them and told them to hide.
“He said they were leaving because the [Islamic State] were coming but we could not go with them. He told us to just hide because the IS would kill us for being non-Muslims,” Sereño said.
A native of Misamis Oriental province, Sereño said he and five others, including their foreman Berting, sought refuge in one of the buildings inside the Pandapatan compound.
“Our employer gave us some food with a specific instruction not to come out unless it was him asking us to open the gate,” Sereño said.
He said several hours later, Pandapatan returned with more food and again, reminded them to stay out of sight.
“I am now leaving, but it is for your own good. IS [members] are everywhere and they are checking people. If you can’t recite the shahada (an Islamic creed), you will be killed,” Sereño quoted Pandapatan as saying.
Frias, a 43-year-old welder from Iligan City, said Pandapatan brought them a half sack of rice and other foodstuff when he returned.
He said when Pandapatan left them, they closed the gate of the compound and huddled together in one of the houses.
They spent days inside the compound as clashes raged all over town.
They lost track of time as days passed.
One day, Frias said they were startled when the compound’s gate started shaking violently.
“We saw about four IS gunmen entering the compound. Four of us ran toward the exit to the adjacent building but two others—Dagul and Loloy—were left behind as they hid in the toilet,” Frias said.
From their new hiding area, Frias and Sereño said they heard the gunmen ask their frantic companions to recite the shahada. When they faltered, shots rang.
“There was silence. There was no more shouting,” Sereño said.
He said he did not witness Dagul and Loloy being shot and killed, but he took the long silence as an indication that they were dead.
Hide-and-seek
Sereño said he, Frias, Berting and 19-year-old Sitoy got out of the compound in the village of Moncado as bombs were exploding around them. They ran toward an area known as Lumber, where they hid anew.
“We hid in the bushes,” he said.
As they tried to move to another area, Sereño said they met a group of gunmen who greeted them with traditional Islamic greetings.
“They saw us and they said, ‘Assalamualikum.’ We were not able to respond so they ran after us. Our foreman, Berting, lagged behind and was captured,” Frias said.
Frias said he, Sereño and Sitoy jumped into the lake and swam while the gunmen fired at them.
He said they took their clothes off so they could not be easily located.
“It’s better to be naked in the dark,” Frias said.
He likened their ordeal to a hide-and-seek game with the armed men. The only difference, he said, was being seen meant they would end up dead.
Sereño said they used whatever things that would conceal them in the lake so they could avoid being shot. But the gunmen tried another ploy to catch them.
“They told us that it was okay to come out. They even said Berting was all right, and that we would have plenty of food,” he said.
By then, Sereño said they were already weak and shivering as they had been in the water for hours.
“They continued to taunt us with words like food, safety. One of them said we should not hide anymore and continued to use Berting’s name to lure us out,” Frias said.
By this time, Sereño said Sitoy had disappeared from the surface of the water.
“He drowned. He was not able to withstand it. He knew how to swim but we were all very tired. He did not survive,” he said.
While trying to stay afloat, Frias said they saw a small banca and swam toward it.
The gunmen kept shooting at them as they paddled as far as they could.
“We managed to reach [Barangay] Bangon and saw some policemen. They gave us clothes and helped us out,” Sereño said.
It was on June 7 when they reached the provincial capitol compound in Marawi City, where volunteers from the provincial disaster risk reduction and management office brought them for medical examination.
On the same day, the International Committee of the Red Cross helped them return home.
“I may not be able to go back to Marawi City anymore. I will miss my Maranao friends, my employers. They were all good to us,” Frias said.
Sereño and Frias were among 1,623 civilians or hostages rescued by authorities and volunteers from Marawi from May 28, when rescue operations started, up to June 13.
Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson for the Lanao del Sur crisis management committee, said they were monitoring the possible locations of trapped civilians and would exert all efforts to find them.