EDITORIAL — Throw him the kitchen sink

This is what happens when you let people get away with crime. In 1987, Armand Ducat Jr. had taken two priests hostage. The priests forgave him; legal authorities should have not. Yesterday Ducat, a millionaire contractor, grabbed his own wards as hostages — pawns in his latest publicity stunt. After a long day when the roads leading to Manila’s city hall were shut down because of his caper, there were people who would have applauded heartily if a sniper had taken him out.

There is a Pinoy term for these people afflicted with an acute craving for attention: "KSP" or kulang sa pansin. People with this disease normally should be ignored. But this becomes difficult when they brandish a gun and grenades and detain 32 children, then tie up traffic for an entire day in the entire western Metro Manila.

There ought to be a law — and in fact there are several laws that must be slapped against lunatics who like to paint themselves as champions of the downtrodden. We have enough politicians doing that, thank you; in fact the politicians were all over the place yesterday, competing with the hostage taker for media coverage.

Elly Velez Pamatong was allowed to get away with strewing metal spikes along EDSA and destroying the tires of several vehicles. None of those motorists ever got repaid for the tires, and none of the thousands of people who suffered in the resulting monstrous traffic jam ever had the pleasure of seeing the culprit behind bars. Now Pamatong is even running for provincial governor.

There are laws that must be upheld and penalties imposed for offenses such as damage to property, alarm and scandal, breach of the peace and malicious mischief. When minors are held hostage, the hostage-taker — no matter how valid his grievances might be or how sane he tries to picture himself — must be charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Anyone who possesses guns and grenades without proper authority, and uses the weapons to terrorize the public, must suffer the consequences.

Anyone who breaks the law must be arrested, prosecuted and penalized for his crime. The rule of law must prevail. Otherwise we will be seeing more self-appointed champions of the poor getting their 15 minutes of fame by using children as pawns and creating public tumult.