Iriga City hostage-taker kills self in jail

IRIGA CITY — A day after he hacked his father-in-law and held a nine-year-old boy hostage for five hours, in a spiral of violence that began when he was robbed inside a train of P80,000 from a land deal, a farmer here hanged himself in his cell.

Jail guard PO1 Eddie Cortan found 35-year-old Eduardo Mariano lifeless inside the toilet of his cell Wednesday afternoon, his own t-shirt tied around his neck.

Mariano was locked behind bars after hacking his father-in-law Juan Vargas and holding Grade 3 pupil Richard Bagasa hostage in a five-hour drama at the City Hall compound the previous day.

The farmer’s troubles began when six armed men held him up inside a train he took in Manila on his way home here last Monday. The robbers took the P80,000 he had been paid with for a parcel of land he sold in Cabanatuan City last week.

Mariano managed to reach Naga City where he sought the help of a police official, a relative of his father-in-law. But he was snubbed instead. Penniless, he walked all the way from Naga to this city. Arriving home Tuesday morning, he grabbed a bolo and a kitchen knife and attacked Vargas using them when the old man, sensing him to be distraught, confronted him.

Mariano then rushed out of the house and grabbed Bagasa, dragging the boy to the City Hall compound where local authorities negotiated with him.

He demanded to see his wife, and while the couple were talking, law enforcers took their cue and subdued him.