Where do those grenades come from?

I only have one basic question in this latest hostage drama that fortunately ended on a happy note because no one got hurt, especially the 26 innocent pre-school children who were detained inside a bus by Armando Ducat Jr. and his accomplice, Ogie Carbonnel, last Wednesday. Where did those two men get a .45 caliber gun, Uzi submachine gun, and the two hand grenades they used to scare us out of our wits that day? And to think this was the second incident of hostage drama that took place here where another grenade and high-powered firearms were also used by the suspects.

It was only last March 13 when a jobless character actor Almario Bautista and his live-in girlfriend held hostage and severely beat up four people inside the courtroom at the Taguig Hall of Justice. And what were the weapons used in that 24-hour "madcap escapade"? Yes, also a grenade and a .22 caliber pistol. It later turned out the suspect had a standing warrant of arrest for the murder of a judge in Taguig several years ago. This particular hostage-taking incident, though, was handled well by the police. The lone casualty in this instance was the hostage-taker who shot it out with the Special Weapons and Action Team (SWAT). Fortunately, there was no collateral damage.

But last Wednesday’s hostage-taking drama in Manila caught the attention of the entire nation and the rest of the world because it involved helpless children. The 10-hour hostage drama was aired live not only by our local TV and radio networks but also by the Atlanta-based CNN, the British Broadcast Corp. (BBC), The New York Times, and other major international news organizations. Journalists from international news outfits were attending the two-day Publish Asia 2007 Conference. This event was organized by Ifra, the world’s largest organization of newspapers and media publishing houses, which was holding this at the Manila Hotel, less than two kilometers away from the scene of the hostage-taking incident.

What bothered me in these capers are the similarities surrounding both circumstances. In Ducat’s case, he has a history of previous hostage-taking case where he apparently got scot free. In fact, we found at The STAR library our files of newspapers dated Nov.19, 1989 when Ducat figured in that hostage-taking incident in which he and Romeo Andaya, one of his construction workers, used two grenades also and a .38 caliber gun. Ducat, who was 43 years old at that time, held hostage for six hours two priests, Fr.Tom Gonzales, parish priest of San Roque Church in Blumentritt, Manila, and his assistant, Fr. Rudy Talawales.

A contractor by profession, Ducat accused the parish priest of allegedly pocketing the parish funds that were supposed to finance the renovation of the church. The hostage-taking ended without any untoward incident after negotiations conducted by Maj. Gen. Alfredo Lim, who at that time was the chief of the Western Police District (WPD), former Manila Mayor Mel Lopez, and Bishop Teodoro Bacani as the emissary of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. Ducat and Andaya released their two hostages unharmed but handcuffed. Ducat and his cohort were subsequently jailed and charged with illegal possession of firearms and grave coercion. When our STAR reporter Non Alquitran interviewed him at the WPD jail the next day, Ducat was unrepentant, as he is now, in his first hostage-taking case.

For his latest hostage-taking adventure that became a media event, Ducat should not get a mere slap in the wrist as some politicians suggest. While he may have held two hand grenades with no detonators and therefore would not explode even without pins on it, Ducat terrorized the nation in using the children to pull his stunt to draw attention to his political statements.

While no one was hurt and he again peacefully gave themselves up, what was more appalling out of this incident is the reality of how these people easily get hold of grenades and other high-powered firearms. Going to my basic question, how did they get possession of these deadly weapons? I might be naive but I know for a fact that these kinds of weapons are only available in the armory of our police and military establishments.

This brings to mind the arrest made last week by aviation security officials of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) of a rookie policeman from Mindanao who tried to smuggle a package containing M-79 grenade and a .45 caliber Colt. The suspect, Police Officer 1 Salam Koreng Salakuran of the Zamboanga del Norte Provincial Police, was nabbed at the Zamboanga City Airport on March 20. What fans my suspicion is that the arresting authorities found from Salakuran a list of price quotations of firearms believed to be for sale and P16,300 in cash.

It appears to me there is indeed a thriving firearms black market in our country. The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ought to conduct a regular and strict inventory of their issuances of their ammunitions. Smuggling of these weapons is a serious security problem. Pilferage of our own police and military armory is much more disturbing.

I was not surprised at all when Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno said yesterday he almost threw the remote control of his TV while watching the hostage drama on live newscasts and saw the manner by which the police mishandled the situation. But that’s another matter I won’t comment on. I’m not an expert on that score except those kinds of hostage dramas that I have watched in movies and on TV.

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