September 3 2012, Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Jakarta Post, Philippine filmmaker brilliantly recreates Abu Sayyaf abductions, by Lito B. Zulueta,

September 3 2012, Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Jakarta Post, Philippine filmmaker brilliantly recreates Abu Sayyaf abductions, by Lito B. Zulueta, 



Captive: Therese (Huppert) in the presence of her enemies, the Abu Sayyaf. (ANN/Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Philippines' Brillante Mendoza recreates compellingly the horrors of the 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapping in Captive, perhaps the most forthright movie made yet on the Muslim Mindanao problem.

Freely drawing from Gracia Burnham’s 2003 book, “In the Presence of My Enemies”, which details the 377-day ordeal that the Protestant missionary and her husband Martin suffered at the hands of the Abu Sayyaf in south Philippines, the 2009 Cannes Film Festival best director weaves a fictional account of the infamous abduction that has, however, the tug and horror of the real thing. The result is the most realistic cinematic treatment yet of Muslim terrorism.

A French-Filipino-German-British co-production, Captive recasts Gracia Burnham as Therese Burgeoine, a Christian missionary and social worker portrayed by the celebrated French actress Isabelle Huppert. Although Burgeoine is married, her husband and children are back home and she’s abducted with her old local guide (a very energetic Rustica Carpio).

Together with locals and other foreigners, Therese is brought to the high seas through a kumpit (speedboat) and transferred to an outrigger. The band go inland and occupy the Dr. José Maria Torres Hospital and the adjacent St. Peter’s Church in Lamitan, Basilan, where they demand ransom from the authorities. Therese witnesses the payment of the ransom by local and military authorities, replicating the controversial passages in Burnham’s book in which she claims that military officers were demanding a cut from the ransom and aided the Abu Sayyaf in their kidnap-for-ransom operations.

Despite the payment, the military mysteriously orders an assault of the hospital and the church. Still, the rebels with hostages in tow, slip through, enforcing the claims of the real victims that the military had allowed the terrorists to escape because officers were on the take and had gotten a cut from the ransom. Captive shows that the assault may be just the military’s way of demanding a bigger cut or a mere mock battle staged for the media. As helicopters rain fire on the hospital from a distance, the terrorists and their hostages leisurely make the trek to the jungles, with one prisoner (Archie Adamos) incredulous at the sight, “Who are they fighting there?” (Abu Sabaya, the terrorist leader, claimed that he and his comrades had paid local and military officials to allow them to escape.)

As the abductors take them deeper into the jungles of Basilan, Therese and the other prisoners go deeper into the heart of darkness. A year later, she breaks down before the camera during an interview with broadcast journalist Arlyn de la Cruz, who plays herself in the movie to reprise the controversial interview she did of the Burnhams in 2001. “It has been long,” Therese says. “It’s a mystery,” the other foreign captives say. Despite the constant reminders that the military is in hot pursuit of the terrorists and their captives, the European prisoners complain that they have not been rescued or released.

Protracted conflict

In focusing on the hostages’ extended captivity, Mendoza adumbrates the protracted state of things that have allowed the Muslim Mindanao conflict to fester and for kidnap-for-ransom terrorist gangs to flourish.

Secessionism has lasted for two generations but there’s no end in sight to the problem largely because the military has been cashing in on the conflict, as proven by reports of the officers selling arms and ammunition to the rebels and pocketing kickbacks from logistics and military procurement.

The government and the military have even managed to profit from kidnap-for-ransom incidents. In her book, Burnham writes that members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines provided rice, sugar and other food for the bandits. She says she was told it was because the Abu Sayyaf was “wheeling and dealing” with the general in the region, who wanted a cut of the ransom. She adds the bandits offered 20 per cent, but that the general wanted 50 per cent.

The movie likewise shows that ransom had indeed been paid for the release especially of affluent prisoners, like businessman Reghis Romero, despite denials by authorities. (Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, in late 2001, said he helped deliver 17 million pesos (US$404,000) in ransom to the Abu Sayyaf bandits for the release of businessman Romero in June. “I know ransom was paid by Reghis Romero because [the government] used my help in paying the ransom,” he said.)
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