GIs act as Edibora’s pall bearers

ZAMBOANGA CITY — She died an unarmed hostage, but she got a burial fit for the heroine she was to the last moment of her life.

Besides the posthumous accolades nurse Edibora Yap was accorded by President Arroyo and the media, she was given silent but profound tribute by the US troops stationed in Basilan: they acted as her pallbearers as she was laid to rest just before noon yesterday.

Reports reaching the military in the aftermath of "Operation Daybreak," which took place last Friday, showed that Yap had remained with American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham, caring for the sick hostages even if it meant sacrificing opportunities for her escape.

Martin was reportedly suffering from malaria and Gracia had grown increasingly frail and weak from stress and lack of food. Yap stayed with them, a trooper to the end, doing her job as nurse and caregiver.

US air force Maj. Richard Sater, spokesman for Joint Task Force 150 of Balikatan 02-1, said two of the four US servicemen who were Yap’s pallbearers were from the US Special Forces and the other two from the US navy Seabees.

"She showed heroism during the (376-day) hostage drama by not leaving. She took care of her fellow captives," a US soldier said. Yap, in their eyes, lived up admirably to the soldier’s motto of never leaving a fallen or injured comrade alone in enemy hands.

During the funeral Mass, Yap’s bother, David Pamaran, read a letter containing her last wishes. They weren’t grand last requests, but basic things mothers focus on: she asked that an educational plan for her youngest son William Laurence be taken from her salary and benefits from the Dr. Jose Torres Hospital where she worked; she also asked that her two older sons, Jonathan, 19, and Anthony, 17, study hard.

Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad celebrated the Mass before a crowded, grieving congregation of Yap’s relatives, friends and other residents of Lamitan town whose lives Yap and her ordeal at the hands of the Abu Sayyaf had touched.

Yap was laid to rest on the grounds of the hospital where she did her duty as nurse and healer, right beside the tomb of Claretian missionary and doctor Jose Torres, who founded the hospital in 1952.

It was at this same hospital where, 376 days before her death, Yap was carried off by the Abu Sayyaf.

Then, the bandits were on the run from intense military operations in Lamitan town and already had the Burnham couple in their clutches. As they fled Lamitan on June 2, 2001, the Abu Sayyaf bandits shot up the church, the hospital and other civic buildings that still bear the bullet holes and pockmarks from rocket-propelled grenades fired by the bandits.

Pamaran also addressed the congregation gathered to give Yap a final farewell: "If we all die at the hands of the Abu Sayyaf, we cannot be accommodated in this church, so let’s render justice against the Abu Sayyaf."

As Yap was being lowered into her grave, torrents of emotions, ranging from grief and sadness to rage at the Abu Sayyaf, surged through the crowd of mourners. The congregation at the funeral’s final rite demanded that their newest heroine be given justice.

Also present at Yap’s funeral were villagers of the Basilan town of Balobo who had also been victims of the Abu Sayyaf’s savagery when the bandits raided the village, took 24 people captive, beheaded 10 male hostages and used the remaining women and children as human shields during their hasty retreat from pursuing soldiers. The military was able to rescue the surviving Balobo townsfolk after a week of pursuit and rescue operations.

When Filipino soldiers spotted the Abu Sayyaf and their hostages in the jungles of Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte at dawn on June 7, the Burnhams and Yap had been placed in tents that would catch the crossfire, shielding the Abu Sayyaf and giving the bandits a chance to run or return fire. Despite the soldiers best efforts to move in silently on the bandits and extract the hostages first before opening fire, they were spotted by an Abu Sayyaf member who alerted the rest of the group and the soldiers were forced to engage the bandits in combat.

Martin and Yap died in the ensuing firefight — Martin shielding his wife with his body inside the tent.

Gracia was recovered alive with a gunshot wound in her right thigh by Filipino soldiers. Gracia personally met with Yap’s family to tell them of the nurse’s heroism and strength throughout their ordeal in the jungles of Basilan, where they endured harsh living conditions with little food or rest and hardly any medical treatment, except for Yap’s ministrations. Gracia is now back with her children in Wichita, Kansas.