Bataan man takes girl, 7, hostage but yields to cop

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – Due to personal problems, a man took a seven-year-old girl hostage but peacefully gave himself up to a policeman after one and a half hours in Mariveles, Bataan Wednesday night.

In a report to the regional police command here, Senior Superintendent Arnold Gunnacao, Bataan police director, said the suspect, Remegio Gayundatu, 48, entered a house in Barangay Batangas Dos at around 9:55 p.m. Wednesday and grabbed the seven-year-old girl, as the other household members managed to escape.

The knife-wielding Gayundatu then brought the girl to the house of Dolorito Estido, 56, who owned the motorized banca he used to catch fish, also in Batangas Dos.

Gayundatu later said he wanted to talk to a Maritime Group member, his cousin PO3 Joselito Abelardo, who was promptly fetched from his house in Sisiman, Mariveles town.

Negotiations went underway and Gayundatu later peacefully surrendered to the police and freed his young hostage.

Gayundatu told police that personal problems drove him to do the hostage taking.  – Ric Sapnu, Raffy Viray