Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Senator boards bus, talks to bus hijackers
MANILA (6th Update, 11:50 a.m.) -- Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. leads the negotiation with gunmen who hijacked a busload of day-care students and teachers and drove them to Manila city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children.
About two and a half hours after the standoff began, Revilla, who said he knows Jun Ducat, one of the hostage-taker, was allowed by the gunmen to board the bus for negotiations.
Revilla’s conversation with the gunmen was aired live over ANC and dzMM. Ducat used the radio connection in airing out his sentiments against massive corruption in government over radio and television.
As of this posting, the hostage taker is still talking on air airing out his disgust and frustration on government’s inefficiency.
The hostage-takers who are holding 32 children and two teachers demanded housing and education for 145 children in a day-care center in Manila's poor Tondo district where the incident appeared to have begun.
"I love these kids, that's why I am here," one of the hostage-takers, identifying himself as Jun Ducat, told dzMM radio by cell phone. "I invited the children for a field trip.
"You can be assured that I cannot hurt the children. In case I need to shed blood, I will not be the first to fire. I am telling the policemen, have pity on these children."
Police surrounded the bus, its emergency lights flashing, near Manila's city hall. TV footage showed the young children, one in sunglasses, waving from the windows, and a woman could be seen making a hand signal asking for a phone as one of the gunmen held a grenade at her shoulder.
The woman reassuringly massaged the shoulders of one boy as she walked away from the front of the bus and the curtains were pulled shut. The children were allowed to wave again later, apparently to show they were OK, before the curtains were closed again.
Mothers of some hostages went on radio to tearfully appeal for their children's safety.
"To the parents of the kids I am with... I am asking for justice so they can have continued education up to college," Ducat said.
Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral talked with Ducat and offered assurances that the children would get a good education.
Ducat was involved in a previous hostage-taking about 20 years ago with two priests in which he used fake grenades, officials said. He had a cell phone but it was not clear if he was in direct contact with police.
A police officer, standing about 15 meters (yards) away, held up a cardboard sign that read: "Jun, we are going to give you a phone so we can talk," as another officer held up the handset. A third officer used a bullhorn.
Ducat, who claimed to have food for two days, refused to take the phone, saying he was afraid it would explode.
A dzMM radio reporter said Ducat, who was seeking safety assurances, asked him to call his doctor, saying he had an angioplasty two weeks ago and that his chest was feeling tight.
A man identified as Jun Ducat was disqualified as a congressional candidate in 2001. It was not immediately clear why he was disqualified, or if it was the same man.
Police Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarzosa said initial reports indicated that the men stormed the bus while fleeing police after a holdup.
"But it looks like that's not correct. They were already inside the bus when it left" the day-care center, Abarzosa said.
Meanwhile, Senator Alfredo Lim said in a television interview that Ducat also took hostage a priest in Blumentritt in Manila in 1987 or 1988 over unpaid contractual fees due from a parish he was working for back then and later released his hostage unharmed.
Lim said he is confident that the hostage-taking will be resolved peacefully like what happened in the past. (Sunnex)
(Reposted with updates)
