At 16:53,
Oct. 18, 2013, I received a series of nine (9) Facebook messages from my son
Jing with the same content: Dad.. Dad.. Dad.
I
replied “nsan ka” but he did not reply. Then I tried calling him several times
but his number could not be reached.
He
also sent a Facebook message to his older brother Gelo, “kuya kuya kuya..
emergency..”
I
know that something not good had happened to my son Jing.
I
called my wife Leah who is still in the office and informed him about our son’s
FB messages. I ask her to try to get in touch with our son. My wife called but she get the same result,
our son’s phone could not be reached. We made several calls from time to time
but the phone is now unreachable.
At 19:22,
now worried, Leah called again our son’s number and luckily my son’s celphone rang
but a different person is on the other end of the line. This has made us more nervous. The man talk
to my wife who is now almost in tears and very worried. He told my wife that someone has given him
our son’s SIM and he personally knows the person who gave it to him. He also told us that they are in Baclaran. My
wife gave the phone to me and I politely talk to the unidentified man. I know he is lying but I want to extract more
information from him to know the whereabouts of my son and if he is safe. He told us to call again tomorrow at about
7:00 am. We talked for 7 minutes and 16
seconds as registered from our celphone but he could not give us any info about
our son.
My
wife now is crying. I told her to just pray and relax for the safety of our son
Jing.
After
about 5 to 10 minutes of waiting after we made the call to that unidentified
man, which seems to be forever, a tricycle stops in the street in front of our house.
I immediately run to the gate and open it and there he was our son Jing. I hug him and thankful he is now here, safe and unharmed.
When
he arrived, he is still in shock of what happened to him. He told us that he was walking towards the
bus terminal in Lawton when someone approached him and requested a “survey”. He obliged unknown to him that the man has
other motives. At one corner near UDM/SM
Manila, the holdupper asks for my son’s belongings. Without a fight and/or
altercation, he gave his celphone - a HS graduation gift from us, a myPhone
A848, his Delsey backpack bag, some important school documents like school end
of semester clearances, some statement of accounts which are needed in securing
a school clearance, his wallet that contains a small amount, his allowance. This is the best thing he did.
After
the hold-up scenario, he is in panic and don’t know what to do. Fortunately, he
saw one of his classmate passing by. He talk to his classmate and told him of his
ordeal and eventually, he borrowed some cash enough for him to go home. He also
immediately went to the nearest computer shop and sent us those Facebook messages
above. We told him that he should sent a
more detailed message for us not to be deeply worried of his situation. But he told us that he could not think
clearly at that time and he was still shivering nervously.
We
prayed together afterwards thankful that he is safe.
Arnel
Corpuz
Oct.
18, 2013
Our son Jing's current FB Profile Pic.
