Jose "Joe" Batronel and his live in love Rosely Mondejar Villadore combine business with pleasure. The 57 year old Batronel, of San Jose in Batangas Province on Southern Luzon almost always has his 37 year old lover by his side as he embarks on extended sales trips throughout the Southern Philippines. Rosely helps with more than just emotional support, often serving as a translator for her Tagalog-speaking common law husband. A native of Magallanes, a municipality in Mindanao's Agusan del Norte Province, she is conversant in both Cebuano and Butuanon. The former is the lingua franca of most non-Muslims in Mindanao while the latter is spoken only in a small area of the Agusan del Norte coast. Closely related to Cebuano it is a near match for Tausug, the lingua franca of Muslims on Jolo Island (Tausugs are actually Islamicised Butuanons who migrated south 500 to 600 years ago).
Indeed, it was Jolo Island where the couple found themselves on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011. On this trip they had taken their newly hired maid, 21 year old Julie Latorre, also of Batangas Province, needing extra help to carry the household goods they sold as travelling peddlers. All three were readying themselves for sleep in the rooming house they had lodged in, in Jolo City's Sitio Militar in Barangay Busbus, close to where the city wall used to stand. Located next to the city's NAPOCOR (National Power Corporation) facility the rooms were not quiet but that only helped to keep the prices reasonable, an attraction as far as Mr.Batronel was concerned. Unfortunately for Mr.Batronel, it also meant that the surrounding area was rather desolate and free of large crowds.
At just after 830PM five young men burst into the rooming house and made their way directly to Batronel's room. Waving pistols and assault rifles they loudly kicked in the room's door and literally dragged their three screaming captives out into the street before roughly tossing them into the rear of an idling red Toyota Tamaraw jitney (modern jeepney). A sixth guerilla, standing guard as a lookout ran and jumped onto the back of the jitney as it peeled out and took off at a high rate of speed. Caught up in the moment the sixth guerilla, hanging off of the back of the vehicle, fired his 45 caliber pistol into the night air as if to challenge any would be do gooders.
Just after the gunshot was fired, and just before the jitney managed to make its way onto Gandasuli Road, a quick thinking Ms.Latorre managed to jump off of the rapidly moving vehicle and run quickly down a side street. Either not noticing the escape or else unwilling to risk everything when they already held two captives, the jitney entered Gandasuli Road and took the couple with it into incognito.
Ms.Latorre immediately reported the incident to the Jolo City CPO, or City Police Office. Not the wisest thing to do of course but being young and in a highly stressful situation far from home it is entirely understandable.
On Saturday, July 17th, 2011, Mr.Batronel was released in Barangay San Reymundo, in the municipality of Patikul after convincing his captors that unless he was set free there would be no way to extract a ransom. He was given the chance to try and obtain the ridiculous sum of P20 Million ($450,000) which of course is merely the opening gambit in negotiations. Upon his release he was picked up by an Armed Forces of the Philippines Marine patrol. Due to severe dehydration Mr.Batronel was hospitalised in the Sulu Integrated Provincial Hospital, as his poor wife remained alone with her Abu Sayyaf captors. While still in the hospital receiving treatment, Mr.Batronel contacted family members in Batangas trying to accumulate a decent enough cachet with which to negotiate his wife's release. Just after midnite Jose Batronel checked himself out of the hospital and contacted Abu Sayyaf to try and come to an agreement on a lower ransom amount. By daybreak, an agreement having been reached for P100,000 ($1,900), a decent enough profit for 2 days work, Batronel had the ransom amount deposited into a bank account provided to him by his captors. By Sunday morning, July 18th Ms. Batronel was released in the municipality of Patikul, taking a jeepney (public transportation) into Jolo City where she was reunited with her husband.
Together, going to the Sulu Police Provincial Office, or PPO-Sulu, as Mr.Batronel had reluctantly agreed to do when rejecting PNP, or Philippine National Police "assistance" at the hospital, they underwent a meaningless "de-briefing." Suffering through the usual dog and pony propaganda...I mean publicity...I mean propaganda cum publicity nonsense the couple were taken to Zamboanga City via a naval frigate and from there took a commercial flight to Manila and their home in San Jose, Batangas.
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