Man stabs wife after taking her, daughter hostages in Cavite
LAGUNA, Philippines — A man, described by his wife as mentally disturbed, held his family hostages inside their own home in Dasmariñas City in Cavite, on Tuesday.
Senior Superintendent Joselito Esquivel, Cavite police director, said Mark Anthony Rigencia, 32, held a pair of scissors against his 29-year-old wife Ginalyn, and threatened to hurt their seven-year-old daughter around 7:30 a.m. in their home in Southplain Village.
But the hostage-taking did not last long after Mark Anthony yielded to authorities and freed his family after about two hours.
“He was demanding for media (coverage), specifically Tulfo, but we told him that seemed impossible,” said Senior Police Officer Alfredo Paredes, who was among those who responded to the scene. (The are four Tulfos working in media; one is Ramon Tulfo, a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the others are Erwin, Raffy and Ben Tulfo who host T3, a public-service-oriented program at TV5).
Paredes said an uncle of the hostage-taker was the one who convinced Mark Anthony to turn himself in but this did not happen before he stabbed his wife in the shoulder.
Ginalyn was rushed to a hospital while their daughter was unhurt.
Paredes said the hostage-taker told them at the police station that he was mad at his wife for supposedly ratting out on him about a 10-year-old frustrated murder case he was charged with in Gloria, Oriental Mindoro.
“We’re still checking that out as well as a report that there was a standing arrest warrant against (Mark Anthony) in Mindoro,” Paredes said.
But Ginalyn, who works as a night duty lady guard in Manila, told the police her husband was under the influence of illegal drugs. She said Mark Anthony even tried to kill himself last October by jumping off a building in Imus City, Cavite.
The police said Mark Anthony could be charged with frustrated parricide and committing violence against women and children. He would also undergo tests for illegal drug use, police added.
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