This woman just reunited with her family, 50 years after she was kidnapped

In 1965, Rosita Villarimo was an innocent 8-year-old living in Barangay San Miguel in Magsaysay, Davao del Sur. The third child in a brood of nine, she was clueless about Manila. As a kid, she enjoyed playing with her siblings, climbing coconut trees, and going into forests to get wood.

One day, while visiting her tita in Bago, Davao del Sur, a certain “Koring” came and invited her to go to Manila. “Eh hindi ko naman alam kung ano ang Maynila... malay ko ba kung nandiyan lang yun sa kapit-baryo o kapit-barangay kaya sumama ako sa kanya,” Rosita said in “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho.”

Rosita was 8-years-old when a certain "Koring" invited her to go to Manila. Thinking Manila was just the next baryo, she agreed.

That was the last time Rosita would see her family. On the Kapuso program Sunday, Rosita narrated the hard life that met her, since going with Koring.

From Davao, they rode a bus to Cagayan de Oro, after which they rode a ship to Leyte, where they spent two weeks before heading out to Cebu, and then to Tacloban, and finally to Manila, where she was bought, sold, abused, and lived a hard life. Twice, she was almost raped. Once, she experienced a pot of boiling water poured down on her.

She finally ran away, hid in a cabinet of a kind stranger, and then brought to Ilocos, where she became a farmer. She ran away again, went back to Manila, had herself place in an agency, where she was hired as a yaya. After experiencing a second rape attempt, she went back to Sta. Mesa, where life turned kind.

Rosita got married, had children, and was even able to save some money. But she was traumatized, and the memory of her childhood kept haunting her. “Gusto ko nang umuwi na may pera na ako, wala [naman] akong idea kung saan ko sila pupuntahan,” she said.

She couldn’t even begin trusting people who claimed to be from Davao because somebody had already duped her, promising to take her clothes back to her parents but never returning. “Nagkaroon ako ng trauma na hindi na ako magtiwala, maski sabihin niyang taga-Davao siya. Nagagalit ako sa sarili ko… mismo ngang sarili kong anak, naiingit ako.”

Her difficult life traumatized Rosita, but no matter. She's finally home.

She wrote KMJS to ask help in finding her family. The program quickly found Mae Villanor Rosing on Facebook, who had a story that matched Rosita’s. According to Mae, her mother, Evangeline had a sister named Rosita who has long been lost. It wasn’t soon before things were confirmed: Mae was Rosita’s niece.

Rosita flew to Davao with KMJS thinking they were just going to look for her family. When she was went face-to-face with her siblings, Rosita was shocked. It took her more than five decades, but finally, she’s home. — LA, GMA News