Swiss-Filipino kidnap victim relates harrowing experience at the hands of captors

Swiss-Filipino kidnap victim Charlie Rieth was born and has lived all his life in Zamboanga City, but won´t move elsewhere and wants to live out his life in the city which he considers his own despite his recent two-month ordeal in the hands of suspected Abu Sayyaf kidnappers.

Rieth was abducted by armed men from his resthouse at Sitio Parkampo, Barangay Patalon, some 31 kilometers west of Zamboanga City, on April 4, Easter Sunday. He was rescued by a joint police-military team from the coastal village of Labuan around 2:30AM Wednesday, June 16. Labuan is the last barangay of Zamboanga City in the west coast before Zamboanga del Norte.

"It is a very trying and hard experience to go through something like that especially in your life which is supposed to be in a sedentary state," Rieth, 71, told media during a brief press conference hosted by Zamboanga City Major Celso Lobregat shortly after his rescue. "I am a senior citizen and for somebody in that age group to go through the ordeal of camping out in different sites and walking and waiting for news from the outside world is very trying and hard and can be really a telling experience."

He said he was nabbed by five armed men but later guarded by only two.

"The most difficult moment is when you have to break camp and move again and then keep on moving," he recalled. "The terrain was very difficult to maneuver cause it was mostly an 80 degree slope so you run fast very much, out of breath and I find that the most difficult moment.

It was mostly the fact that the signal in that area was very poor, you have to travel long distances until you get good signal, and so communication with the outside world was very poor---there was not much chance –to talk to relatives, friends or media or to anybody at hand--there were days when you didn´t say a word to each other."

Looking at the positive side of things helped him make it through this most difficult phase of his life, Rieth said.

"When you are in a situation like that I would say that documentary of your life passes in front of your eyes —what you have done and what should have been done—that keeps you new insight on life and it makes you want to stay alive and it wants you to come out of this stronger and better so that whatever mistakes you might have done in the past you can make it up now.

"What made you survive? It is mostly when you look at how things are going day to day basis there are some ups and downs but you keep looking for the ups and forget about the ups –and forget about the downs—that keeps you going."

Despite his ordeal, Rieth said he has no intentions of leaving Zamboanga City or moving abroad.

"Going abroad you can do that anytime if you have the means," he mused in reply to his plans. "For staying in Zamboanga—I guess there is no question about it----I was born here I been living here continuously for 60 years and I think it is still one of the best places in the world---maybe I will take a furlough for a month or two and then pick it up from there."

In parting, Rieth said in Chabacano "Quiere dale gracias con ustedes todo na media para el coverage de este incidente y ta cre yo qie un dia puede man juntu kita y man beer kita." (I´d like to thank to all of you in the media for your coverage of this incident. I believe one day soon we can get together for some beer.") (with reports from April Rose Rone and Rick San Juan of VozdeMindanao)

Update: Barely a day after Rieth was rescued, police reported the kidnap of 60-year-old businessman Vicente "Teng" Barrios in Zamboanga City Thursday morning.

Police reports said Barrios was nabbed by five armed men around 8:30AM while riding a pumpboat off the coast of Bgy. Bolong, some 30 kms from the city proper. Barrios was moved at gunpoint to another pumpboat which then sped off. Police have commenced hot pursuit operations against the kidnappers.

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