Cavite hostage-taker shot dead by cops

SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna, Philippines – A man was killed by policemen after he refused to release his girlfriend whom he had taken as hostage in Dasmariñas City, Cavite, on Wednesday.

The slain suspect, identified as Toti Asibar, 36, was allegedly drunk when he held his girlfriend, Kristine Ilano, 30, hostage with a samurai sword in Barangay (village) Zone 1 at 12:40 a.m.

“We were alerted by the village officials about the hostage-taking. When we arrived, we saw the suspect dragging his girlfriend out in the street as he held a samurai against her neck,” said Superintendent Hermogenes Cabe, Dasmariñas City police chief, in a phone interview.

The couple, both working as caretakers in a private hog farm in the city, had come from a drinking session when village officials noticed them fighting on the street.

Cabe said Asibar threatened to kill Ilano, whom he accused of having an affair, as he dragged her to the next block in the same village. The hostage negotiation lasted for over an hour.

“The suspect then pinned her down onto the pavement and when he was about to hack her with the samurai, our policemen had to take action,” Cabe said.

Asibar, he said, was shot in the neck and was declared dead on arrival in the hospital. Ilano, on the other hand, sustained wounds from the samurai sword.