ANTI-CRIME watchers and authorities both say kidnappers seem to get older every day, leaving a trail of traumatized individuals and families in their wake. As Ang-See says, "Kidnapping is a death sentence, you just don't know when it will be carried out."

Coronel tells of victims whose feet are chained to their beds or are denied access to the bathroom. "The girls are the greatest concern," she says. "Because anything can happen. We have these victims, they were sisters, they were going to school together. Neither went to the bath- room for three days for fear that something would happen to the other once one of them leaves. So this is not just emotional trauma. It's something that can be physically taxing."

Summary of Kidnapping Cases
(January to December 2002)

Month	NCR	Luzon	Visayas	Mindanao	Total	No. of Victims	Ransom paid (in million pesos)
January	7	7	-	8	22	25	12.595
February	4	6	-	3	13	28	28.272
March	3	3	2	2	10	13	8.97
April	3	3	-	3	9	15	0.92
May	5	-	-	1	6	8	20.50
June	6	3	1	2	12	19	5.45
July	5	6	2	2	15	18	2.554
August	1	3	-	3	7	21	0.114
September	6	5	-	3	14	22	12.432
October	2	5	2	1	10	11	8.171
November	7	2	-	4	13	25	1.2
December	2	1	-	-	3	4	2.538
TOTAL	51	44	7	32	134	209	103.716

Source: Citizens Action Against Crime and Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order

But there was one 18-year-old boy who Ang-See says was so incensed at how he and the other victims were treated that in- stead of going home after his release, he went straight to the PAOCTF With his help, the PAOCTF was able to rescue three other victims whom he had seen in one of the gang's safehouses. Ang-See calls the boy; who was kidnapped and freed in 1997, "our hero."

She says the teenager and the other victims had been "treated like animals, they were chained, they were fed food on the floor. There were no bathroom privileges. They had to defecate and urinate in the same place where the kidnappers threw their food. That's why the boy was so angry."

The trauma and hardship are not confined to the actual victims. Their families also go through hell as the kidnappers terrorize them to make them pay up big and fast. Coronel says, "The trauma is when they call the family member (and) say, 'Ipapadala ko yung kamay ng anak mo, na putol, kung di ka magbayad ng ransom. (I'm going to cut one of your child's hand and send it to you if you don't pay the ransom)"'

"We have one gang who killed one of the victims," she recounts, "but before killing the victim — they were holding four kidnap victims at the time — they called the families of the victims and said, 'Kinukuripot niyo kami? Manood kayo ng balita mamaya (So vou're playing the skin-flint with us? Watch the news later.)'And indeed that night, (the) news covered the killing of one of the victims (right) in front of the factory. So they called the next time, 'Kita ninyo? Ganyan ba ang gusto niyo sa kamag-anak niyo? (See? Is that what you want to happen to your relative?)"'

According to Coronel, kidnappers milk some families so dry that these no longer have enough money to hire a lawyer later — that is, if they ever find the courage to go to court and testify. Coronel in fact often appears pro bono for kidnap victims, and she sometimes finds herself against a battery of lawyers representing the suspected kidnappers. In one instance, a lawyer from the Intelligence Services Armed Forces of the Philippines was even among the defense counsels.

But lawyering for kidnap victims is a high-risk job. Some of the accused play rough even in court. Coronel says she has had her share of being at the receiving end of threats, recalling how the brother of an accused came up to her in court and told her, "Attorney, ikaw lang ang nagpapahirap sa buhay ng kapatid ko, alam mo ba yon? Pero siya nakakulong. Ako hindi. (Attorney, you're the only one making my brother's life mis- erable, do you know that? But he's in jail. I'm not.)"

"And I knew that he had a gun with him at that time," she says. "It's good that I had some policemen who were my witnesses in the case who saw me with that man and they came up to me and said, 'Is there a problem?' If I did not have anyone there with me I would have buckled down."

Ang-See, for her part, says that her worst fear is that people — victims, non-victims, the authorities — start to accept things as,' life's given, a problem beyond solution.

Unfortunately, she says, she is seeing that happening today. Says Ang-See: "People are asking, 'Can we even have a lull or breathing space?' I mean it's terrible. My worst nightmare is that people seem to accept it as a way of life."

"That is what I couldn't accept now, as if kidnapping is a part of life," she laments. "They just ask for breathing space. I mean that's just terrible to me because that's insane! Because it's abnormal to accept kidnapping as part of your day-to-day life."