Email: gee@bohol-online.com.ph

(Gee Biliran is a lawyer, real estate broker and advocate for women, children and the environment. She has extensively traveled to Asia, Europe and the United States of America.)

We hope that our government would not miss the point of it all.

The hostage-taking of 26 school children and 4 teachers of the Musmos Day Care Center in Tondo, Manila last Wednesday led me to a lot of reflections.

The hostage-taker, Armando Ducat Jr., was ironically the owner of the Musmos Day Care Center where the children studied. He and his 2 other accomplices were armed with a grenade (which turned out to be a dud), an UZI, and a .45 caliber pistol.

For about 10 hours, the kids were holed up in the bus supposedly bound on a field trip to Tagaytay, with the threat of being blown up together with the hostage-takers.

I sadly realized that we have reached desperate times, pushing us to resort to desperate measures, not unlike the almost daily suicide bombings in Iraq.

Ducat’s demands for his surrender were the following: free education for at least 145 children of the Musmos Day Care till college; improved housing for the residents of Parola, Tondo where the children and their families lived; and the end of corruption.

We could sense his desperation as he appealed for a chance to speak.

He revealed that what he wanted for the children was education “because if they were educated, they would have discipline and would not become drug addicts.”

“You are witnesses to the political dynasties, the rampant stealing in government. Because of this, our dream of progress for the country will not be realized,” Ducat lamented.

“Aren’t we ashamed of ourselves? We are a country who believes in God and yet we are ungodly in our actions,” he decried.

Before Ducat released his hostages, he asked the public to light a candle and pray for all candidates in the upcoming elections that they might be "enlightened" so that they would not be corrupt.

Ducat got the exposure he wanted, as the hostage drama was shown live on satellite TV all over the world. One commentary on the CNN was that the hostage-taking, which happened barely 2 months before the upcoming elections, was embarrassing to GMA. According to the commentator, the incident betrayed the deep-seated problems of poverty and corruption in the country.

On the demand for education, the President of the AMA Computer College pledged to give free education to the children till college. We later learned that Bong Revilla made the same promise.

We hope that these promises would not fade in thin air. Ducat should ask the AMA President and Revilla to put their undertakings in written contracts to legally bind them to the obligations they publicly thrust themselves into. Such cautiousness on the part of Ducat would not be too presumptuous. If the College Assurance Plan (CAP) had the temerity to avoid its obligations despite the premiums painstakingly paid for by the parents, with more reason could the AMA and Revilla do so without any right of enforcement on the part of Ducat and/or the children’s parents if the undertakings are not legally documented.

On the demand for housing, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Bayani Fernando expressed commitment to help provide housing for the residents of Parola, Tondo. Again, this undertaking was not put in writing.

No commitment had yet been made on the issue of corruption. This only means that corruption is not what our politicians in our country can do without.

Talking of politicians, the antics of Chavit Singson and Bong Revilla were distracting.

When told that he should not have gone to the scene because he was a candidate for the upcoming elections, Singson’s curt reply was, “Inggit lang sila.”

Singson’s slip of the tongue, as well as his and Revilla’s audacious presence, made us wary of their and the hostage-takers’ sincerity. We could not help but entertain the suspicion that the hostage-taking was only staged to give exposure not only to Singson and Revilla but also to Ducat who, it turned out, was running for councilor in Tondo and was not new in hostage-taking.

Did Singson know beforehand that the grenade was a dud? Is this why he was “brave” enough to stake his life for wide media exposure?

It would be a shame if the real motive behind the antics of Ducat, Singson and Revilla was merely media exposure. If so, they should be charged for child abuse for causing trauma on the children.

However, we give Ducat the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, he may have asked for government assistance for his Day Care but was ignored. Perhaps, he may have tried to get scholarships for the poor children but was ignored. Perhaps, he may have asked the government for better housing for the residents of Parola, Tondo but was ignored.

We hope that our government would not miss the point of it all. Our supposed leaders should put in mind that the dire poverty in Tondo is just a dichotomy of the poverty in the whole country.

Our government should, therefore, address not just the poverty in Tondo, but also in the whole country. Our government should not be short-sighted and reactionary. GMA should do more than just invite the children to Malacañang.

Only then could we say that Ducat was successful. Only then can we say that we are successful.