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Sunday, April 01, 2007
Hostage-taker seeks preliminary probe
MANILA -- Hostage-taker Armando Ducat Jr. asked the Manila Prosecutor’s Office 15 days to answer the criminal charges filed against him and for the conduct of a preliminary investigation on his case.
The Manila Police District (MPD) office has filed charges of serious illegal detention, illegal possession of firearms and explosives against Ducat for holding hostage 26 schoolchildren and their teachers on board a tourist bus last Wednesday.
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Police also slapped Ducat with violation of the gun ban.
The charges were filed despite the refusal of the parents of the former hostages of Musmos Daycare Center to initiate the filing of charges against the Ducat and his accomplice, Cesar Carbonell, who are detained at the Manila Integrated Jail on the second floor of the Manila Police District headquarters.
Ducat said he would have had second thoughts about staging the 10-hour hostage drama had he known that the serious illegal detention offense is a non-bailable offense. However, he did not categorically say that he regretted his acts.
Ducat denied he was a "terrorist." "I am not a terrorist, the corruption government officials and politician sila ang higit na (they are the) terrorists," he said.
Asked to comment on reports that he tainted the image of the Philippines because the hostage drama gained worldwide media attention, he said “Hindi ko sinira ang Pilipinas, dati ng sira ang Pilipinas. Iyong mga sinabi ko, sa dyario ko rin kinuha iyan, iyong corruption (I did not destroy the image of the Philippines, our reputation had long been destroyed. What I said about corruption, I got it from the papers),” he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will begin assessing possible livelihood assistance to the families of the 26 Musmos Day Care Center (MDCC) students held hostage in Manila last Wednesday.
“This aims to generate for them more stable sources of income,” said DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum Saturday.
She said livelihood training and capital assistance will be sourced from DSWD’s Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K), a capability-building program aimed at enhancing and harnessing entrepreneurial skills of marginalized people by organizing them into community-based associations engaged in entrepreneurial activities.
Aside from training in business management and livelihood, association members can each avail of seed capital from SEA-K worth P5,000 payable in two years with weekly amortization through the associations.
DSWD reported SEA-K already benefited about 272,242 families and helped fund 12,047 projects since 1993, when it commenced, to June 2006.
The agency will be extending such livelihood assistance as part of its wholistic program for the children who are from Parola, an urban poor community in Manila’s Tondo district.
Ducat held hostage these pre-schoolers early last Wednesday while on the way to a supposed educational trip to Tagaytay so he could demand from government assurance for their continuing education.
“DSWD will facilitate the children’s enrollment in pre-school,” Cabral said.
She also said the agency will help these children avail of all educational benefits other youngsters facing the same socio-economic situation are getting from local government units and other government agencies.
“Pre-elementary and elementary public education in the entire Philippines is free so children may enroll without the burden of tuition fees on the part of their parents,” she said.
She noted the children can also apply for college scholarships later.
As part of DSWD’s stress debriefing service, Cabral said social workers continue visiting the hostage victims to monitor their possible manifestation of post traumatic stress disorders. (ECV/PNA/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (April 1, 2007 issue)
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