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A day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children.
Jun Ducat and at least one other hostage-taker scribbled(1) in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the bus' windshield(2), that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades(3), an assault rifle and a pistol, officer Mark Andal said.
One child with a fever was released after four hours, and then was driven away in an ambulance.
They said they were demanding improved housing and education for 145 children in a day-care center in Manila's poor Tondo district where the incident, televised live around the world, appeared to have begun. The driver was released soon afterward.
"I love these kids; that's why I am here," Ducat, identified by police and parents as the day-care center owner, told DZMM radio by cell phone. "We have a field trip(4). 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."
TV footage showed the young children, one in sunglasses, waving from the windows. A woman with her arm around a child 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(5) 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.
Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral talked with Ducat and offered assurances that the children would get a good education.
About 2 1/2 hours after the standoff(6) began, Sen. Bong Revilla, who said he knows Ducat, was allowed to board the bus for negotiations.
Revilla emerged 45 minutes later and reported that the children were in good shape. He said Ducat was holding a grenade with the pin pulled out, and that his hands were shaking.
The engine of the purple-and-gray bus continued to run, providing air conditioning as midday temperatures reached 93 degrees. Ice cream was being brought for the hostages, Revilla said.
A police officer, standing about 15 yards away, held up a cardboard sign offering a telephone land line as another officer held up the handset. A third officer used a bullhorn(7).
Ducat, who claimed to have food for two days, refused to take the phone, saying he was afraid it would explode.
Ducat was involved in a 1989 hostage-taking with two priests in which he used fake grenades, but the priests did not press charges(8) in what was described as a contract dispute.
In 1998, he climbed to the top of a tower to protest against the candidacy(9) of a politician who he said was not a real Filipino citizen.
He was disqualified as a congressional candidate in 2001. It was not immediately clear why, but he was well known to local officials.
"I know him as a very, very passionate individual who has his own kind of thinking on the solutions to our problems," Manila Mayor Lito Atienza said. "But we cannot agree with his ways."
1. scribble：潦草地写
2. windshield：挡风玻璃
3. grenade：手榴弹
4. field trip：旅行考察，为了对博物馆、森林或有历史意义的地方做最直接的观察而进行的团体远足
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