Loose shorts helped in arrest of Naga "hostage-taker"

CEBU, Philippines - Loose short pants can be a blight to some, but a blessing to others!

A pedicab driver identified as Herman Panal, who allegedly armed himself with two empty bottles, held hostage a vendor at a public market in Poblacion, Naga town yesterday at past 3 a.m.

Loreta Ebonalo, the victim, narrated that her day started out well as she was getting ready to sell her wares - flowering and ornamental plants - to customers when Panal, all of a sudden, grabbed her from behind.

In tears, Ebonalo shared that she didn’t know who that person was. In fact, she first thought of it as a joke. But she later realized it wasn’t when Panal dragged her to the street and aimed the bottles at her - one on her neck, the other on her tummy.

“I was really shocked. I didn’t know what to do. Nobody wanted to come near us because he threatened he would kill them if they would,” she said in Sinugbuwano.

As onlookers, who witnessed the incident, would describe it, Ebonalo sustained marks on her neck created by the pressure of the bottles to her skin.

PO3 Julito Navales of the Naga Police admitted they had a hard time negotiating with Panal to let the woman go as he was believed to be mentally impaired.

“He didn’t demand anything, though. All that he asked for was for us to step aside, else he will kill Panal or someone who comes near them,” he said.

The negotiation stretched for two hours. Afterwhich, the pair of short pants worn by Panal loosened, prompting him to let go of the hostage victim in order to pull his shorts up. This was when Ebonalo found the opportunity to run away from him.

Police took both Panal and Ebonalo, but in separate cars, to the hospital as Panal was soaked in blood after some kibitzers pounced on him.

He admitted afterwards that he wasn’t in his right frame of mind when he did that.

“I am having problems at home. My wife and children left me. I also had a quarrel with my sibling,” he said in the vernacular.

Panal is currently detained at the Naga Police Station.

As for Ebonalo, she will undergo debriefing and will have to consider whether she would file a case against Panal. — Rachelle Marie G. Dangin/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)