c r o s s+r o a d s

Stories That Coach: Random Act Of Kindness Saved Pinoy In Nigeria

Mar 19, 2006

Updated 01:16am (Mla time)
Volt Contreras
Inquirer/ Inq7.net

IT was what any prudent person in a strange and restive land would have done.

And Anthony Santos, a 36-year-old Filipino worker then stationed in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta State, did accordingly when a group of weary fishermen stopped by his company barge one day.

The group asked Anthony if he could spare some food-and soon enough he was handing over slices of bread from the vessel's stock.

It was a random act of kindness in just another encounter with the impoverished locals in Anthony's two years of working in the Niger Delta. He had actually forgotten all about it.

Until a black-masked man wielding a machine gun reminded him last month.

On Feb. 18, a militant group opposing oil activities in the Niger Delta abducted Anthony and eight other foreigners employed by the US oil service firm Willbros, holding them hostage in a jungle hideaway for almost two weeks.

The other captives were three Americans, two Britons, two Thais and an Egyptian.

A subplot unfolded beneath the international crisis, showing how the Filipino knack for making friends and generating goodwill served Anthony well during this chilling episode in his life as an overseas worker.

One of the kidnappers, it turned out, was also one of the famished fishermen whom Anthony had helped.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

posted by ASKSonnie @ Sunday, March 19, 2006