GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Filtered By: Topstories
News
Kidnapped filmmaker sisters released in Jolo after 8 months
(Updated 9:53 a.m. Friday, Feb. 21) Filmmakers Nadjoua and Linda Bansil, kidnapped in Sulu in June 2013, are free after being "found" by Marines in Patikul town in that province.
Philippine National Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Theodore Sindac told GMA News Online that the sisters escaped from their captors and were recovered by Philippine Marines. But sources familiar with the ransom negotiations had been saying their release was imminent.
"Dadalhin sa Marine Hospital for medical exam and then to Zamboanga," Sindac said.
"Dadalhin sa Marine Hospital for medical exam and then to Zamboanga," Sindac said.
A close friend of the sisters also confirmed that the Bansils are free. "Pinapamedical pa po sila. Baka bukas, nasa [Zamboanga] na po sila," she said. She declined to be named saying she was in no position to speak in an official capacity.
For his part, Armed Forces public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, in a text message to GMA News Online on Friday, said the sisters were recovered at around 5 p.m. Thursday in Sitio Kantatang, Barangay Buhanginan, Patikul, Sulu.
The Bansils had gone to Jolo in June 2013 to shoot a documentary about impoverished coffee farmers. They were abducted after shooting the sunrise. They had made arrangements with local Moro networks for their safety, which apparently broke down.
The sisters had been collaborating for years on independent films shot on shoestring budgets, with subjects focusing mostly on Muslim life. One of their feature short fiction films, Bohe, was screened at the Cinemalaya film festival in the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2012. It told the story of Badjao boys in a migrant fishing village in Batangas.
For his part, Armed Forces public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, in a text message to GMA News Online on Friday, said the sisters were recovered at around 5 p.m. Thursday in Sitio Kantatang, Barangay Buhanginan, Patikul, Sulu.
The Bansils had gone to Jolo in June 2013 to shoot a documentary about impoverished coffee farmers. They were abducted after shooting the sunrise. They had made arrangements with local Moro networks for their safety, which apparently broke down.
The sisters had been collaborating for years on independent films shot on shoestring budgets, with subjects focusing mostly on Muslim life. One of their feature short fiction films, Bohe, was screened at the Cinemalaya film festival in the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2012. It told the story of Badjao boys in a migrant fishing village in Batangas.
Linda (left) and Nadjoua Bansil: filmmakers, Moro pride advocates. Photo from Medmessiah Bansil's Facebook.
Police believe they were abducted by members of the Abu Sayyaf Group led by a certain Ninok Saparri. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of P50 million, Sindac said. Sources close to the family said they had bargained it down to a much smaller amount.
Perhaps unknown to the kidnappers, the sisters were daughters of a prominent deceased Muslim cleric from Maguindanao, Abdulbassit Bansil, who had been a close associate of Nur Misuari and other founders of the MNLF as well as the MILF. He had married an Algerian, hence the sisters' Arab looks.
The sisters had tapped their Moro networks to ensure their safety in Jolo, even receiving assurances from the Abu Sayyaf itself, according to a 2013 Rappler report. But a breakaway group intercepted the sister's jeep on their way back to Jolo town from shooting the sunrise in an Abu Sayyaf stronghold on June 21.
"Ang sabi lang nila, pupunta silang Mindanao to work on a documentary film about coffee growers, iyon lang alam ko," JM Diego, a close friend and fellow filmmaker, told GMA News Online in an interview last June. — with a report form Amanda Fernandez /JDS/HS/LBG, GMA News
