Pinay kidnap victim in Egypt: Bedouin captors were kind

The Filipino woman who was captured by Egyptian tribesmen during a Catholic pilgrimage last week claimed that her captors had been kind to her and two other companions during the six-hour ordeal.   In a phone interview with ABC-7 (San Francisco), 66-year-old Patti Ganal said the Bedouin tribesmen—who abducted her, fellow pilgrim Norma Supe, and their Egyptian tourist guide Hisham Zaki—even treated them “like family.”   Ganal’s group was held at gunpoint near St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula last February 3 (United States time), but the Filipino woman said the men were “not going to point the guns to us.”   Ganal related that they drove about two hours from where they were picked up. When they stopped, their captors built a fire and brought food such as dates, cheeses, and bread.   A separate report of the Associated Press said: “Ganal, a devout Catholic, said she began talking to the men about God and faith while Zaki translated.”   “I really believe it was God that just talked to them, to their hearts,” the Filipino later told ABC-7.   The Bedouin captors did this to have some of their tribe members released from prison, she added.   “They were hoping that, you know, doing what they were [doing] will accelerate and have them (arrested tribesmen) released,” she said.   A separate report of CBS San Francisco quoted “a security official” in Egypt, who said “the Bedouin captors were from the el-Qararsha tribe in South Sinai Peninsula, home to Egypt’s most lawless tribes.”   “Bedouins have long complained of discrimination and random arrests by the government,” the report said.    After about six hours, the men “negotiated with Egyptian police who agreed to release the tribesmen,” and, in turn, also freed Ganal and Supe, the ABC-7 report said.   After their release, the women met with authorities and Ganal, who has led Christian pilgrimage tours to Egypt for years, told them “that if they want to get tourists back, they have to provide security so this never happens again,” the report said, adding that the tourism industry in Egypt “lost more than $4 billion last year.   Ganal and Supe were due back to the United States last Tuesday (US time). - VVP, GMA News