By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 8 minutes ago
MANILA, Philippines - A day-care center owner armed with grenades and guns held more than 30 youngsters and teachers hostage on a bus Wednesday, then freed them after a 10-hour standoff that he used to denounce corruption and demand better lives for impoverished children.
Clutching dolls, toys and backpacks, the children began filing off the bus shortly after 7 p.m., as Jun Ducat had promised in a rambling message delivered via a loudspeaker hours earlier.
Ducat, a 56-year-old civil engineer who has staged other attention-grabbing stunts in the past, then put the pin back in a grenade, handed it to a provincial governor, Luis "Chavit" Singson, and surrendered as Singson held his arm.
"I accept that I should be jailed because what I did was against the law," Ducat said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the standoff ended.
Jubilant parents were quickly reunited with their children while Ducat was led to a waiting police car and driven away.
Dr. Leopoldo Orantia, spokesman for a government hospital, said the children would undergo checkups and psychological debriefings.
White candles had been lit, in accordance with Ducat's request, and placed in yellow cups lined up under the yellow police tape used to cordon off the area. Police and other officials also held candles outside the bus, as did people in the crowd that went to watch the situation unfold.
"Let the candles be a warning," Ducat said. "If the promises remain unfulfilled, you will see those candles again."
Ducat reportedly had chartered the tourist bus for a field trip marking the end of the school year.
Instead, he had the driver take them to City Hall, where a handwritten sheet of paper was taped to the windshield that said he was holding 32 children and two teachers and was armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a .45-caliber pistol.
Earlier Ducat had made a long statement through a wireless microphone while the children chanted his name. He railed against the failure of politicians in the Philippines to make good on promises to provide free education and housing for the poor, and called corruption in the country the worst in Asia.
"While generations of politicians change, we continue to suffer in poverty," Ducat said. "These politicians promise education, health and housing, but unless we stop corruption ... they will just feast on the budget."
Ducat, described by friends as a public-service oriented man who gives to the poor, was involved in a previous hostage-taking in 1989 involving two priests, but no charges were filed, police said.
He was disqualified as a congressional candidate in 2001 for unspecified reasons. He once protested high rice prices by personally pulling a wagon loaded with sacks of rice about 60 miles to Manila. In 1998, he climbed a tower to protest against the candidacy of a politician who he said was not a real Filipino citizen.
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We demand housing and education for 145 children from the Musmos Day Care". The message on the right reads "We need amplifier so you can hear our demands". REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES)
A student who was held hostage steps out of a bus as negotiator Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. carries him in Manila March 28, 2007. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
Students held hostage on a bus wave from inside the bus in Manila March 28, 2007. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
A student who was taken hostage in a school bus is carried by Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. in Manila March 28, 2007. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
Students held hostage on a bus gather at the front of the bus in Manila March 28, 2007. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
A student who was taken hostage in a school bus looks out of a window in Manila March 28, 2007. (Darren Whiteside/Reuters)
School children, taken hostage by unidentified men, stare from the government bus that would take them to a hospital after their release following a 10-hour standoff in a tourist bus in front of the Manila City Hall in Manila, Philippines Wednesday March 28, 2007. Unidentified men, allegedly armed with grenades, UZI assault rifle and handgun, took hostage 32 children and two teachers and posted their demands of free housing and education to 145 children in the poor neighborhood in Manila. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
School children taken hostage by unidentified men stare from a government bus shortly after their release following a 10-hour standoff in a tourist bus in front of the Manila City Hall in Manila, Philippines Wednesday March 28, 2007. Unidentified men, allegedly armed with grenades, UZI assault rifle and handgun, took hostage 32 children and two teachers and posted their demands of free housing and education to 145 children in the poor neighborhood in Manila. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Teachers and schoolchildren are held hostage in Manila. A Philippine headteacher has surrendered to police after holding a busload of his own students hostage with a hand grenade and other weapons in what he said was an appeal to help them.
A hostage gestures for a cellphone as a grenade is held close to her by a hostage-taker inside a tourist bus in front of the Manila City Hall Wednesday March 28, 2007, in Manila, Philippines. A day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children. Jun Ducat and at least one other hostage-taker scribbled in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the bus' windshield, seen at left, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a pistol, officer Mark Andal said. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
One of the schoolchildren is carried out of the bus after 10-hour hostage drama in Manila. A Philippine pre-school headteacher has surrendered to police after holding a busload of his own students hostage with a hand grenade and other weapons in what he said was an appeal to help them.
Schoolchildren are led to safety after a 10-hour hostage drama in Manila. A Philippine pre-school headteacher has surrendered to police after holding a busload of his own students hostage with a hand grenade and other weapons in what he said was an appeal to help them.
Senator Ramon 'Bong' Revilla Jr. carries one of the school children taken hostage by unidentified men, after their release following a 10-hour standoff in front of the Manila City Hall in Mani
The two men who took a bus load of students hostage, Cesar Carbonell (L) and Jun Ducad, are seen in a police station in Manila March 28, 2007. Hostage-takers armed with grenades freed children they had held captive in a bus for over nine hours in the Philippine capital on Wednesday, live television showed. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco (PHILIPPINES)
Action movie star and Senator Ramon Revilla (in yellow shirt) enters a bus where school children being held hostage as he negotiates for the release of a boy suffering from fever during a hostage drama in downtown Manila, 28 March 2007. Thirty-one pre-schoolers and two teachers are believed to be held by up to three gunmen after one child suffering from a high fever was released from the bus, which has been surrounded by police outside the Manila city hall.(AFP/Joel Nito)
Anxious mothers react as they arrive at the scene where unidentified men took hostage 32 school children and two teachers inside a tourist bus in front of the Manila City Hall in Manila, Philippines, Wednesday, March 28, 2007. Unidentified men, allegedly armed with grenades, UZI assault rifle and handgun, took hostage 32 children and two teachers and posted their demands of free housing and education to 145 children in the poor neighborhood in Manila. (AP PhotoAaron Favila)
Members of the police special weapons and tactics (SWAT) unit stand guard during a hostage drama in downtown Manila, 28 March 2007. Gunmen holding 31 pre-schoolers and two teachers inside a bus in the Philippines capital have agreed to free the hostages and surrender at 7:00pm (1100 GMT), police and negotiators said Wednesday(AFP/Joel Nito
Map of Manila showing where armed men hijacked a bus and took 32 children and two teachers hostage Wednesday.(AFP)
A policeman (C) tries to contact the hijackers with a cellphone while another (R) holds a placard which reads 'Answer your cellphone, I'm the one calling you,' during a bus hostage incident, in Manila March 28, 2007. Two armed men took over a bus in the Philippine capital Manila on Wednesday and were holding 31 nursery school children and two teachers hostage, apparently to highlight corruption in the country. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco (PHILIPPINES)
Police try to secure the area where unidentified men took hostage several school children inside a tourist bus Wednesday, March 28, 2007 in front of the Manila City Hall in Manila, Philippines. A day-care center owner and at least one other, armed with two grenades, an Uzi assault rifle and a .45-caliber pistol, took a busload of his students and teachers hostage and drove them to the city hall to demand better housing and education for the children. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
School children taken hostage by a day-care center owner and at least one other unidentified hostage-taker wave from the bus where they are being held, as police officers continue to negotiate for their release Wednesday March 28, 2007, in front of the Manila City Hall in Manila, Philippines. Jun Ducat , a day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
File photo shows armed policemen standing guard in Manila. Up to three men armed with grenades and handguns commandeered a bus and took 32 children and two teachers hostage in the Philippine capital Wednesday, police said.(AFP/File/Joel Nito)
