BI, airport officials confirm Gracia’s trip

Former Abu Sayyaf hostage American missionary Gracia Burnham was in town last year, immigration and airport officials confirmed yesterday.

And apparently, the surprise visit is puzzling to both Philippine and American officials.

Officials from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) said Burnham and her three children arrived in Dec. 23, 2004 and left the country on Jan. 11, 2005.

Immigration sources said the Burnhams arrived at 9:30 p.m. on a Japan Airlines flight. It was a busy time then at the NAIA Terminal 1, with balikbayan passengers from other countries arriving in droves for the holiday season.

Sources said this could very well explain why the Immigration officer who processed the Burnhams’ travel documents was unable to recognize the virtual celebrity when she passed through the Immigration area.

Burnham, whose husband Martin was killed in 2002 during a rescue attempt by the military after the couple was held captive for over a year by the Abu Sayyaf, was reported to have revealed to US authorities that she spent Christmas in the Philippines with her three children.

Burnham said she gave her family a "good dose of closure" during the trip, admitting she made efforts not to be recognized.

The US Embassy, on the other hand, claimed it was not aware of Burnham’s visit.

"I’m not privy to that information. But she wanted to come and be a private citizen. And she was successful at that," US Embassy spokeswoman Karen Kelley said.

The New Tribe Ministry in the Philippines where the Burnhams served as missionaries, however, would not comment on the visit.

"I don’t want to talk or comment about the kidnapping incident because Gracia won’t like to talk about it anymore," a certain Stauball of the New Tribes Ministry in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, said.

Earlier reports said Burnham and her three children arrived discreetly in the country and proceeded to the New Tribe Ministry in Bukidnon.

It was the second return visit for Burnham to the country, almost a year after she positively identified her former abductors in a police lineup.

The Burnhams were taking a vacation at a plush Palawan resort when they were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf along with 20 other tourists in 2001.

The bandits also kidnapped another American tourist, Guillermo Sobero, who was later beheaded along with two other captives.

The Burnhams were held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf for more than a year while on the run in the jungles of Basilan until she was rescued by the military in a coastal town in Zamboanga del Norte.

She narrated her 377-day ordeal under the Abu Sayyaf in her book "In the Presence of My Enemies," ending her account with the bloody rescue that left her husband Martin and Filipino nurse Edibora Yap dead on June 7, 2002. — With Pia Lee-Brago, Lino de la Cruz