Day-care centre owner takes children hostage

A man with a history of attention-grabbing stunts took a busload of young students and teachers hostage from his Philippines day-care centre and drove them to Manila city hall today.

He denounced corruption and demanded better lives for the poor children.

The incident dragged on for more than six hours.

It virtually shut down the capital’s main office building, drew thousands of onlookers and was beamed live around the world – drawing the type of media coverage that Jun Ducat clearly wanted with mid-term elections scheduled for May.

Ducat, a former contractor who founded the Musmos Day Care Centre about four years ago in Manila’s Tondo slum district, reportedly chartered the tourist bus for a field trip marking the end of the school year.

Instead, he and at least one other hostage-taker had the driver take them to city hall, where they taped a hand-written sheet of paper to the windscreen, saying they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an Uzi assault rifle and a .45-calibre pistol.

The driver was released soon afterward.

A child with a fever was freed after four hours and driven away in an ambulance.

“I love these kids; that’s why I am here,” said Ducat, identified by police and parents as the owner of the 145-student day-care centre, told DZMM radio by mobile phone. “I invited the children for a field trip.

“You can be assured that I cannot hurt the children. In case I need to shed blood, I will not be the first to fire. I am telling the policemen, have pity on these children.”

He said he would surrender by 7pm (11am Irish Time).