Parents of dozens of Philippine children held captive this week by the man who operated their day-care centre held a protest rally on Thursday to urge the government to free him and another man behind the hostage drama.
Holding placards that demanded the release of Jun Ducat, parents and residents at the Parola compound in one of Manila’s poor slum communities said they were pressing no criminal complaints against the hostage-takers.
”He’s our real hero, he’s our Robin Hood,” said Lara Moreno, mother of one of the children. ”We owe him a lot. He gave our children free education, free food and clothing.”
While many in the community disagreed with Ducat’s way of highlighting the plight of poor urban dwellers, they agreed that his punishment was too harsh ”for his good intentions”.
”We don’t want him in jail,” said Rosita Osita. ”He was just doing what he thought was right and just for us. He was a very good man. We pity him now.”
Manila police filed charges of serious illegal detention and illegal possession of firearms and explosives against Ducat and his accomplice, Cesar Carbonell, late on Thursday.
Prosecutor Noemi Balitaan gave their lawyers 15 days to answer the criminal complaints, and denied them bail.
If a local court finds them guilty, Ducat and his companion could face life imprisonment, but their lawyers were confident the cases would be dropped because none of the parents was willing to file a complaint against them.
Ducat, who owns a construction and handicraft company, built and operated the Musmos day-care centre, helping about 145 children complete a pre-school course.
On Wednesday, he hired a bus ostensibly to take children and three teachers on a field trip south of the capital, but held them hostage for nearly 10 hours near Manila’s city hall. He was armed with a submachine gun, a revolver and two grenades.
The grenades were later found to have no detonating mechanisms.
Ducat demanded housing and free college education for children at his centre, and said pervasive government corruption was the reason poor people could not send their children to school, live in decent homes and enjoy free health services.
Ducat and his companion surrendered peacefully to police on Wednesday evening, and some officials suspected the hostage drama was a political gimmick ahead of congressional elections in May. — Reuters