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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Taguig hostage crisis continues (10:09 a.m.)
MANILA -- The release of the four hostages, including a clerk of court and a stenographer inside the Taguig City Hall of Justice, remained uncertain 17 hours after the standoff started.
Negotiations were still ongoing according to Taguig Mayor Sigfrido Tinga who is leading the crisis management team along with Vice Mayor George Elias and Police Director Alfred Corpuz.
Tinga said the hostage-taker Almario Villegas, a character actor and stuntman and his lover Delia de La Cruz, did not ask for anything other than expressing their anger over a land dispute that ripened into a four-year legal battle.
Corpuz said the hostage-takers remained inside the second floor courtroom of Taguig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 166 Judge Ramon Pacis along with their hostages, Attorney Dona Donuan, and Liwanag Saloma, branch clerk of court and stenographer as well as the complainants in the case, Gina Ramos and Frederick Villegas.
Villegas took the four persons as hotages during the preliminary conference of the case at 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday after a disagreement erupted over the postponement of the trial. (AH)
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