Milenko Kindl
Milenko Kindl
A man with a history of attention-grabbing stunts took a busload of
students and teachers hostage from his day-care center and drove them
to City Hall Wednesday, keeping them onboard for hours and demanding
better lives for the children.
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Jun Ducat reportedly chartered the tourist bus for a field trip
marking the end of the school year.
Instead, he and at least one other hostage-taker had the driver take
them to City Hall, where they taped a handwritten sheet of paper to
the windshield, saying they were holding 32 children and two teachers
and were armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a .45-caliber
pistol.
The driver was released soon afterward, and a child with a fever was
freed after four hours and driven away in an ambulance.
"I love these kids; that's why I am here," Ducat, identified by police
and parents as the owner of the 145-student day-care center, told DZMM
radio by mobile 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."
Ducat said he would surrender by 7 p.m. Police surrounded the bus, its
emergency lights flashing, and black-clad bomb squads and SWAT teams
watched from behind a nearby monument. Ambulances, fire trucks and
crisis teams from the Social Welfare Department stood on standby.
The incident drew thousands of onlookers and was beamed live around
the world.
President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's office said it was monitoring the situation
closely.
"I am appealing to him not to do anything violent and he can be
assured that the police will not do anything that will trigger
violence," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said of Ducat.
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 a man 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.
"We are asking him to free the children, to let our kids out," said
Gemma Arroyo, 29, mother of 6-year-old hostage Angelica. "We will
forgive him if he will free our children. We have no ill feelings
toward him. He is a good person."
Ducat said the hostage-taking was for the children's benefit.
"I am asking for justice so they can have continued education up to
college," Ducat said.
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