Hostage-taking on a bus

Photo by Peter Hendrie, Lonely Planet Collection. Bus on Country Road Samoa. Used here for  educational, non-commercial purposes, free service by blog-use of image provided by and from www.allposters.com  Lonely Planet Collection.

     He was a hostage-taker who had no demands. He did not ask for money, he did not ask for freedom, he did not ask  for better living conditions, he did not ask to see anyone. Rey Digo took the  a Bataan-bound bus yesterday armed with a handgun, took out his gun and, according to the police, started firing randomly. The police said he had killed one passenger and wounded another. After five hours of negotiations, the police said there was a “grappling for the gun”, a shot rang and the hostage-taker was dead. Police later said they decided to end it because it was getting dark and  “the situation was getting  more dangerous”.  

     Had he lived, the paperwork  typed up against him would be  for “serious illegal detention”, a capital offense, and murder or homicide depending on the circumstances. Depriving a woman, a child, or a public officer, of  her/ his/her liberty, even for just a few hours or an hour or moments, constitutes the following crime:

     “Revised Penal Code. Art. 267. Kidnapping and serious illegal detention. – Any private individual who shall kidnap or detain another or in any manner deprive him of his liberty shall suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua  to death:

      1.If the kidnapping or detention shall have lasted more than five days.

      2.If it shall have been committed simulating public authority.

      3. If any serious physical injuries shall have been inflicted upon the person kidnapped or detained; or if threats to kill him shall have been made.

     4.If the person kidnapped shall be a minor, female, or public officer.

      The penalty shall be death where the kidnapping or detention was committed for the purpose of extorting ransom from the victim or any other person, even if none of the circumstances abovementioned were present in the commission of the offense.”

    Justice Ramon Aquino, “The Revised Penal Code”: quote “Republic Act No. 18 passed in 1946 amended Art. 267 by reducing the minimum detention to five days and including the detention of a minor, a female person, and a public  officer among the forms of serious illegal detention. The purpose was to check the rampant kidnappings of children, women, and public officials after the war. XXXX”

   Whether the amount of force used by the police  was commensurate to the danger the suspect posed and the objective of saving lives and bringing the suspect to justice, depends on the  truth of the statements from the police: the firearm, the shooting, the grappling.