THREE police officers have been relieved for
mishandling Wednesday’s 10-hour hostage crisis that involved 31
schoolchildren and two teachers from a day care center in Tondo.
"I’m not happy about the way these things
were handled," Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said at Camp
Crame yesterday. He said his sentiment was shared by President
Arroyo.
Sacked were Manila Police District Director
Senior Supt. Danilo Avarsoza, MPD-Station 5 commander Supt.
Rogelio Rosales, and the unidentified commander on the ground.
Puno said the officers have to answer for the
procedural lapses.
"These officers will be placed on
administrative relief for the duration of the investigation," he
said.
The children and their teachers were on their
way to Tagaytay City for a field trip around 9:30 a.m. when
Armando "Jun" Ducat held them hostage inside a bus.
The crisis was over at past 7 p.m. after
Ducat’s demand for free education of at least 145 schoolchildren
his Musmos Daycare Center was met.
Puno said the PNP would throw the book on
Ducat and his companion, Cesar Carbonell.
PNP deputy chief for administration Deputy
Director Avelino Razon Jr. said that technically only two
officers were relieved as Avarzosa was also the ground commander
at that time.
He said MDP deputy director Senior Supt.
Antonio Decano will replace Avarsoza in an acting capacity.
Puno said a number of the police rules in the
handling of a hostage crisis were violated.
He said the police officers did not
coordinate with Mayor Lito Atienza, who should have headed the
crisis management committee. "I don’t know who these people were
taking their orders from. Certainly not from the PNP
leadership," he said.
"There are hard and fast rules on how to
handle hostage situations like this…In hostage situations there
has to be a crisis committee that immediately triggers in and
the head of the crisis committee is the local chief executive of
the area," he said.
"We are going to ask the PNP elements why
they did not coordinate with the mayor and take instructions
from the mayor as head of the crisis committee," he said.
"It is the obligation of the ground commander
to take his directions from the mayor who has operational
supervision over him," he said.
Puno said the area was not cordoned off,
enabling bystanders and media to get near.
In a hostage crisis, police regulations state
that the incident scene should be "secured and isolated."
"If anything unfortunate or untoward
happened, then the casualties might have been larger that they
needed to be," he said.
He also took note of the breach of the
procedures when the police allowed Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla and
Luis "Chavit" Singson to act as negotiators.
"They (Revilla and Singson) were not the one
who breached the procedures. It’s the police officers. If you
are a senator and you are asked to help, he will help
obviously," Puno said.
"That ground commander should have gone
through channels, cleared with his superior officers and made
sure that this was something that was comfortable within the
guidelines of the situation. He did practically surrender the
entire thing to everybody else," he said.
Puno scolded Supt. Cipriano Querol, spokesman
of the hostage crisis, for saying that the presence of the
civilians and the media near the scene helped in the peaceful
resolution of the incident.
"He has no business talking. I’m telling all
of those people: From now on shut up," he said.
"We would like to serve notice to everybody
that even if you get Robin Hood and (dress) him in priestly
robes, when he holds a grenade and keeps hostage children, he
automatically becomes a terrorist and we are going to deal with
him as a criminal," he said.
"He (Ducat) is a criminal no matter what his
intentions are …These two individuals should not be praised,
they are the scum of the society because they held hostage an
entire society because of their crazy demands," Puno said.
"There is nothing that justifies anybody
holding a city hostage and holding hostage these innocent
children," Puno said.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Ducat is
liable for violation of the Human Security Act of 2007 or
anti-terror law but he cannot be charged as the law will take
effect one month after the May election.
Gonzalez said that Ducat may still be charged
under the Revised Penal Code for the multiple counts of serious
illegal detention, a non-bailable offense, illegal possession of
firearms and a violation of the Comelec-imposed gun ban.
"This is a clear act of terrorism, but we
cannot charge him for it. It’s very clear that what he did was
one of the acts within the definition of terms in the
anti-terror law," he said.
He also said that police may have some
administrative liability for failing to implement crowd control.
The Manila Police District–General Assignment
Section is readying the filing of charges against Ducat and
Carbonell. The hostage-takers yielded two grenades, an Uzi and
one .45 caliber pistol.
Atienza has ordered investigators to look
into allegations that the hostage crisis could have been a mere
political stunt to the benefit of certain candidates.
"From the very start we looked at the
possibility of political motivation. The campaign season is
peaking. This could be part of a political exercise of some
people, and we discussed the matter," said Atienza.
Ducat has said that the only negotiator he requested was
Revilla, who he said is his friend and kumpadre. Ducat denied
that he asked for Singson to negotiate. – Victor Reyes and
Evangeline de Vera
