Day-care provider hijacks 32 students
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MANILA — A day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila’s City Hall early today to demand better housing and education for the children, police said.
Jun Ducat and at least one other hostage-taker scribbled in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the bus windshield, 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.
One child with a fever was released after four hours and was driven away in an ambulance.
The abductors said they were demanding improved housing and education for 145 children in a day-care center in Manila’s poor Tondo district, where the incident appeared to have begun. The driver was released soon afterward.
“I love these kids; that’s why I am here,” Ducat, identified by police and parents as the day-care center owner, told DZMM radio by cellphone.
A standoff mounted as dozens of police surrounded the bus.
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