Yt Framework

Freed kidnap victim registered nurse Mary Cris Quartocruz has told local mediamen that her conversion to Islam was the  reason for her release from kidnappers.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Ms. Cuartocruz, wearing head cover traditionally worn by Muslim women, declared  that she converted to Islam so as not to be abused by her captors.

"I was determined to become a 'balik Islam' because of the kindness of my captors they showed to me while in captivity," Ms. Cuartocruz, a born Catholic, told local reporters.

She also told reporters that using the "hijab" or the Muslim women's traditional head covering and her conversion to Islam  really helped secure her release from the kidnappers.

She disclosed that her captors changed her name from Mary to Hannah. "Nagbago talaga ako...iyong kumuha sa akin iba...iyong nag-alaga sa akin wala akong masabi sa kanila (everything became new for me...those who took me were different...those who fed me I have nothing to say for them)," she said.

But some mediamen and policemen who attended the press conference at PNP's Camp Batalla headquarters observed that the statement of Ms.Cuartocruz was a sign of "Stockholm syndrome."

Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness.

Ms. Cuartocruz was seized by about five gunmen from their residence at Kilometer 26 in Barangay Manicahan, this city, on December 14, 2010.

She was released Feb. 28, 2011 by her captors at Barangay Timbang Timbang in Alicia town in Zamboanga Sibugay to her mother Elena, exactly 76 days after the abduction.

By Hader Glang