The Manila police chief and two of his officers will be removed from their posts, the interior secretary said Thursday, in the fallout from a hostage standoff in which 26 children were held for 10 hours on a bus in the name of social reform.
Armando "Jun" Ducat Jr., owner of the 145-student Musmos Day Care Center in Manila's Parola slum community, used the globally televised standoff Wednesday to demand better education and housing for poor children.
He and an accomplice were armed with two hand grenades, an Uzi rifle and a pistol.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said police failed to control the crowd of onlookers near City Hall, allowed unauthorized people into the scene, and permitted contact between the hostage-takers and other people - including media - without proper clearance.
Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarzosa and two of his staff will be asked to step down for failing to follow proper procedures, Puno said.
Abarzosa said he has not received the order to step down, but "like a good public servant, I will follow my superiors."
Senator Ramon Revilla Jr., a friend of Ducat, went on the bus to help negotiate an end to the crisis. Ducat later surrendered to a provincial governor, but not until he railed against corruption and politicians' failure to make good on promises to provide free education and housing for the poor.
Abarzosa said police later discovered the grenades did not have a detonator and would not have exploded, but that the guns and bullets were real.
Despite insurgencies in the country's south and a high crime rate in the capital, the government has been trying to portray the Philippines as a safe destination for tourists and investors.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the two suspects to be treated "with the full force of the law" to prevent Ducat, who has a history of attention-grabbing stunts, from repeating his action and to serve as a warning to possible copycats.
"The end does not justify the means. Despite the seemingly noble issues being raised in this bizarre drama, this government shall not stand for prank-terrorism," she said.
Ducat was unrepentant.
"No, I don't regret anything," he told The Associated Press Television News from the Manila police jail. "The children's wishes were fulfilled, all 145 children can now go to school all the way up to college."
Ducat, a 56-year-old engineer, chartered the bus for a field trip at the end of the school year. Instead, he had the driver take them near City Hall where he announced he was taking the passengers hostage.
Arroyo treated the children, their parents and teachers to a different field trip - an audience at the presidential palace, where she served a snack of spaghetti with meatballs and spring rolls.
Sitting on a throw pillow on the carpet at the Palace's Heroes' Hall, Arroyo chatted with the children and posed with them for cameras.
The parents and their children expressed no ill will toward "Sir Ducat," as they fondly called the man they said has provided free day care and paid for the teachers.
"My wish is that ... what Sir Ducat had worked so hard for be realized because we from the squatter area know the hardship he went through to help us poor people," said Shiela Malabo, whose 7-year-old son, Fred, was among the hostages.
