A TEENAGER was held hostage by her fellow jeepney passenger, who threatened to slit her throat as he forced her to walk a 120-meter stretch of M. C. Briones St. in Mandaue City yesterday.
Jeah Mae Carnillas, 18, survived her 20-minute ordeal after a policeman grabbed Anicito Laranio’s pocket knife.
Carnillas was with her grandmother, Guillerma, 58, when it happened at 5:45 p.m.
Carnillas and Guillerma, who live in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia in Mandaue, encountered Laranio, 37, in the jeepney that they took from Danao City.
Laranio is from Sitio Cabasan, Barangay Sambagon in Pinamungajan town.
Carnillas said they were in Danao to visit her mother.
When they reached the highway in Mandaue, Laranio stood up and clung at the back of the jeepney.
The jeepney stopped in front of Belmont Hardware on M. C. Briones St., where Carnillas and Guillerma got off.
While Carnillas was assisting her grandmother to disembark, Laranio grabbed the girl, pulled a pocket knife and declared a holdup.
“Niingon sya ‘dai huwaman sa tika kay mouli ko sa Pinamungajan (He told me he was borrowing me to take home to Pinamungajan with him),” Carnillas said.
Carnillas was crying while they walked along the highway, passing under the Maguikay flyover until they stopped at a bank, located just a few meters from the flyover.
Guillerma shouted for help while following Laranio and her granddaughter.
Marcelo Carnillas, the girl’s grandfather and a tanod of Barangay Ibabao-Estancia, said he and other tanods called police for help.
When the police arrived, one of them grabbed Laranio’s knife and removed the girl from his grasp.
Laranio, a construction worker, was detained at the police station in Barangay Casuntingan. He said he was a drug taker.