MANILA, Philippines — Abu Sayyaf extremists rejoiced as they watched two Canadians being beheaded in the jungles of the southern Philippines, said a Filipino hostage who was freed Friday.
Marites Flor tearfully recalled to reporters the moments when Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall were handcuffed and led away to a nearby jungle clearing to be separately decapitated in April and early this month by the ransom-seeking militants.
She said Hall, who was killed last week, was her fiance. Ridsdel was beheaded by the militants in April.
“It’s so painful because I saw them moments before they got beheaded,” Flor told reporters in southern Davao city, where she was flown to meet President-elect Rodrigo Duterte after her release in nearby Sulu province.
“They were watching it and they were happy,” she said of the militants, adding that she did not witness the killings.
Flor said she was slapped and threatened and her fellow hostages were beaten when the militants disliked what they were doing. “They treated us like dogs, like children,” she said.
Flor was abducted with Hall, Ridsdel and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad from a resort on southern Samal Island in September last year and taken to the jungles of the predominantly Muslim island province of Sulu. The militants killed the two Canadians after ransom deadlines lapsed.
The captives were among some two dozen people held by the Abu Sayyaf this year.