Day care students taken hostage

By Francesca Lo Basso
Collegian Editor
April 4, 2007

Armando “Jun” Ducat, Jr. and an accomplice took 26 children and four teachers hostage for 11 hours on a bus March 28.

Ducat, owner of the Musmos Day Care Center in the Philippines, was supposed to be taking his pupils on a field trip to nearby Tagaytay City, but instead ordered the driver to take them to the Bonifacio Shrine near Manila’s City Hall. Ducat and his accomplice were armed with hand grenades, an Uzi submachine gun and a revolver.

The local police Explosives and Ordinance Division said the grenades were real, but had no detonating mechanism. No statement was made about the other weapons. Ducat demanded housing and educational scholarships for the 145 graduating pupils of his two-story day care center, and also used the situation to air grievances against the corrupt government.

On the day of the hostage situation, Manila came to a standstill as local news stations broadcasted the crisis live. They listened to Ducat issue a statement in which he demanded better education for the poor. His comments were believed to be aimed directly at Manila Mayor Jose Atienza and the city’s administration.

After the 11-hour siege, Ducat released his captives unharmed and surrendered himself to the police. Authorities are investigating the possibility that Ducat might have been politically motivated.

“Was Ducat acting alone or is a political figure behind him? We have to look at that angle also,” Atienza said.

According to ABCNews.com, the Philippines’ Social Welfare Secretary, Esperanza Cabral, said, “He is emotionally disturbed, but mentally, it looks like Mr. Ducat is very sane.”  

Cabral also said the children being held captive were unaware of what was really going on.  

“In fact, even if they saw that Mr. Ducat was holding a gun, they were also holding toy guns.  So it was a game as far as they were concerned,” Cabral said.  

She commented that Ducat made it look to the children as though they were only playing “cowboys and Indians.” The combination of Ducat, who the children knew as the owner of the day care center, and the four teachers reassured them that they were in the presence of benefactors and so suffered little emotional distress.

Cabral also said that initial psychological assessment of the hostages showed no signs of lasting emotional disturbances. Only six of the children displayed any anxiety or change in their behavioral pattern at the preliminary debriefing.

Police spokesman Cipriano Querol said none of the children’s parents had yet lodged a complaint against Ducat. He said that the day care center Ducat had started was a popular figure in the district where it is located. Some parents even said on Wednesday that they were sure the children would come to no harm, and sympathized with Ducat’s sentiments about the government.

President Arroyo of the Philippines said the issues raised by Ducat about corruption, poverty and the lack of educational assistance for the poor from the government were “noble,” but the government could not tolerate an act of “prank terrorism.”

lobassof1@lasalle.edu