BACOOR, Cavite?Its cityhood still pending, this municipality is forming its own Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team that will handle hostage-taking situations, setting aside some P300,000 in initial training fund.

Bacoor (pop.: 697,000) will be the first municipality in Cavite to have a 14-member SWAT force. Normally, only cities could afford to maintain their own SWAT units.

Its police chief, Supt. Redrico Maranan, said plans to form the unit were drawn up long before the Aug. 23 hostage-taking on a tourist bus at Quirino Grandstand in Manila that left the hostage-taker, a dismissed police officer, and eight Hong Kong Chinese dead.

The two most recent hostage-taking crises here prompted Mayor Strike Revilla to approve the funding for the SWAT training, Maranan said. In July, an American held his wife, son and house helpers hostage in a four-hour standoff with police. Three days later, a 25-year-old man threatened to stab his 2-week-old stepbrother if his demands were not met.

Both cases, driven by domestic problems, ended peacefully, with the hostage-takers and the hostages rescued unscathed.

?Although they did well (in handling the hostage-taking), we saw that there is still a lack of equipment,? Gov. Jonvic Remulla said in a phone interview.

?It is expensive to maintain a SWAT unit. It would cost P400,000 just to provide for level 4 (the highest quality) ballistic shield, bulletproof vest, uniform and arms for a single member of a SWAT team. That?s even a conservative estimate,? he said.

Maranan, who himself has been trained as negotiator in hostage-taking under the Philippine National Police?s Special Action Force, would be facilitating a close-quarter battle, the basic training course for SWAT units, in September.

The provincial government has also allotted P3 million for keeping its SWAT team. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon