Manila, Philippines – A young girl waved a Barbie doll in the air while a boy licked an ice cream cone. Another girl casually finished a bottle of water while chatting with a classmate.
Dozens of children were taken hostage on a bus Wednesday by a day-care center owner armed with grenades and guns, but the youngsters took the ordeal in stride, eating pizza, smiling and waving from the windows throughout the day.
The crisis ended after 10 hours when 56-year-old civil engineer Jun Ducat, who staged the incident to denounce corruption and demand better lives for impoverished children, released the children, put the pin back in his grenade and surrendered to police.
Jubilant parents were quickly reunited with their children as they filed off the bus clutching dolls, toys and backpacks. Ducat was led to a police car and driven away.
“I was afraid all day that the grenade may explode,” said Gerome Agabon, father of 5-year- old hostage Joanne.
Manila police district chief Danilo Abarzosa said Ducat would be charged with 32 counts of illegal detention and abduction – each count is punishable by up to 12 years in prison – along with illegal possession of explosives and firearms.
“I accept that I should be jailed because what I did was against the law,” Ducat told The Associated Press shortly before the standoff ended.
The excited students thought they were going on a field trip when they boarded the bus early Wednesday. Instead, Ducat had the driver take them to City Hall, where a handwritten sheet of paper was taped to the windshield that said he was holding 32 children and two teachers and was armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a .45-caliber pistol.
Bus driver Deogracias Bugarin said they had loaded up with bottled water and eaten breakfast at a fast-food restaurant. Ducat said he brought along three chamber pots for use as toilets.
Parents at the scene, although afraid for their children, expressed sympathy for Ducat’s demands and had kind words for his work in their slum, particularly the free day-care center he founded where he pays the teachers’ salaries.
