Manila Hostage Drama

MANILA, Philippines—Armando Ducat Jr., a businessman and daycare center owner who pulled a dangerous publicity stunt last year when he held 26 children hostage inside a bus near Manila City Hall, walked out of detention on Christmas Eve after posting bail.

One year and nine months in jail apparently did little to change the self-appointed champion of the poor, who, in the bizarre, 10-hour hostage drama, ranted against government corruption while threatening to blow up the bus with grenades.

“I’m happy and sad at the same time,” Ducat told the Inquirer by phone yesterday. “I’m happy because I’m finally home with my family, it was indeed a nice Christmas gift. But I know that the people inside (jail) need me more.”

“Corruption still prevails,” he said. “I have no regrets.”

Ducat and his aide, Caezar Augustus Carbonell, are charged with 26 counts of serious illegal detention. They were released from the Manila City Jail on Wednesday after each posted a P260,000 bail.

The amount covers 20 percent of actual bail—P1.3 million each—that the court had set.

Ducat, who also shouldered Carbonell’s bail, said he had to pawn some of his properties and borrow money from friends.

Some of his businesses, including a construction firm and a furniture company, suffered because of his detention and eventually closed, the engineer said.

According to his lawyer Antonious Collado, Ducat was charged with a nonbailable offense but a motion for bail was still filed on the ground that the evidence so far presented against his client was weak.

The motion was granted on Monday by Judge Amelia Infante of the Manila RTC Branch 9, Collado said.

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral, who was among the most vocal public officials in condemning the hostage-taking on March 28, 2007, said: “If the court finds that it’s legal for him to post bail, I can’t do anything about it. But certainly, the judicial proceeding continues.”

Feasting, singing, swimming

The Department of Social Welfare and Development is involved in the case as a complainant, representing the children.

After posting bail, Ducat, 57, went straight to his BF Resort Homes residence in Las Piñas City, where he said he had a “simple” noche buena of seafood and Korean shabu-shabu with his family.

“We stayed up until 4 a.m., it was fun. I missed my family,” he said. “We were singing, swimming in the pool.”

But Ducat said he couldn’t help but think about his former inmates. “I pity them. I wonder what they were doing, if they have something to eat for noche buena.”

“Being with them allowed me to understand how corrupt our justice system is. Now I understand these people better and what drives them to do bad things,” he said.

When he woke up yesterday morning, Ducat said he was surprised to see almost a thousand children, mostly from the nearby slums, waiting for him in front of his house.

“I gifted each of them with the Magic Box, a toy which I taught the inmates how to make. No cash for the kids this year,” he said.