CEBU, Philippines - A four-year-old girl was held hostage by their mother's drunken lover, after their mother failed to come home in Sitio Minolida, Barangay Calamba, Cebu City past 5 a.m. yesterday.
He allegedly also tried to drown her elder sister, who managed to escape.
Witnesses said an intoxicated Rolito Ymbong, 29, came home from Lapu-Lapu City and got angry when he learned that the girls' mother was not home.
He allegedly took a 14-inch knife, grabbed the girls, and brought them to a nearby river.
Ymbong reportedly held the four-year-old girl in one hand while pushing her elder sister into the water with the other.
The other girl, six, managed to wriggle free and asked for help.
Dante Biscocho, Calamba barangay tanod, told The FREEMAN that the hostage taking took more than an hour.
He said he and other tanods, together with Special Weapons and Tactics members, responded to the alarm and saw Ymbong with one arm wrapped around the girl's neck.
"Gitusok na niya ang kutsilyo sa iyang atubangan sir, unya kung naay moduol niya ibton niya ang kutsilyo (He stuck the knife on the ground infront of him; and if there is someone who would get closer, he would pull it out)," Biscocho said.
Authorities tried to convince Ymbong to let the child go and surrender but he did not take heed.
Biscocho said that when the suspect was offered a cigarette, he took and lit it, giving tanod chief Bonifacio Baguio to grab the knife and for his tanods to subdue Ymbong.
"Gihaylo siya og sigarilyo sir; unya iya man nang gidagkotan pagkataud-taod gilayatan na siya sa hepe sa tanod ug sa kauban namo nga tanod (We enticed him with a cigarette; and when he accepted and lighted it, the tanod chief and our companions jumped on him)," Biscocho said.
He said the four-year-old just stood there and never cried during the hour-long ordeal.
Ymbong was brought to the Taboan Police Station after what he did. As of press time, however, the police have yet to receive a word from the victims' mother. —/RHM (FREEMAN)