A misunderstanding with his live-in partner led a 30-year-old man to seize three children hostage in sitio Danawan, barangay Biga, Lutopan, Toledo City, in Cebu yesterday morning.
Allan Bolo was shot dead by a police officer after he grabbed and hacked a 3-year-old boy inside his shanty at 5:30 a.m.
He also tied two boys aged 5 years old and 2 years old around his waist during the hostage crisis.
It started innocently enough with two of the children going outside to play in a basketball court.
Bolo’s 35-year-old neighbor Victoria Guiquing said her children were fond of playing in the basketball court, which served as a plaza in their area.
“My two kids were playing around and chasing after the puppies,” Victoria recalled.
The basketball court is 30 meters away from Bolo’s home.
Victoria told Cebu Daily News that Bolo invited her two kids to eat cassava inside his house.
In shock
It was there that Bolo tied the two children with a rope around his waist and grabbed the 3-year-old child of 24-year-old Araceli Plando.
Victoria said she was sweeping outside their house when their neighbors informed her about the hostage-taking.
Her 50-year-old husband, Prospero, works as a security guard in the Carmen Copper Corp. located seven kilometers away from barangay Biga.
Prospero said he was still at work at the time and he rushed to Bolo’s house after he learned about the incident.
Victoria and her husband were still in shock after the hostage-taking incident.
Victoria said Bolo’s live-in partner left him because the couple were quarreling.
She said Bolo was jobless and he accepts carpentry work in their neighborhood.
Plando, who worked as a helper in Minglanilla town, Cebu, said her sister texted her about the hostage incident and she went to Lutopan without eating.
All of a sudden
She said her son lives in her mother’s home in barangay Biga.
“Nikalit lang na siya (He did it all of a sudden),” said Joddie Bolon, Bolo’s neighbor.
Bolon said the neighbors got scared when they learned about the hostage-taking incident.
“We also tried to pacify him (Bolo),” Bolon said in Cebuano.
Bolon said Bolo’s live-in partner left him together with their 4-year-old daughter.
He said Bolo was always drunk and threatened to kill his live-in partner.
“He (Bolo) pointed a bolo to the 3-year-old kid,” Bolon said in Cebuano.
’So violent’
Biga barangay captain Marcelina Razuelo said Bolo demanded for an armalite, one .45 pistol and three hand grenades “to defend himsef.”
Insp. Bonifacio Lucerna, acting Toledo City police chief, said they decided to shoot Bolo because he hacked the 3-year-old.
“Bolo slashed the kid with a bolo. He became so violent,” Lucerna told Cebu Daily News.
Lucerna said they offered Bolo unloaded guns but he refused to accept them.
He said Bolo mentioned that he wanted to talk with his live-in partner.
Retired Col. Leo Acebedo, security consultant of the Carmen Copper Corp., said he tried to convince Bolo to give up the children.
Bolo’s attack compelled PO3 Arman Enriquez to shoot Bolo in his shanty with his service .45 pistol.
“I shot him when he slashed the 3-year-old kid with a bolo. Bolo was facing the window,” Enriquez said.
Traumatized
Bolo was brought to the Carmen Copper Hospital and was declared dead on arrival by the doctors.
The police recovered two bolos from the crime scene.
Lucerna confirmed that Bolo sustained a gunshot wound on his abdomen.
Razuelo said the children were rescued before 12 noon.
The 3-year-old boy who sustained injuries on his right shoulder was brought to the Carmen Copper Hospital and was transferred to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, Cebu provincial police chief, said the two other rescued kids will undergo stress debriefing at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“We requested the DSWD staff to conduct a stress debriefing with the two kids because they might have been traumatized with the incident,” Comendador told Cebu Daily News.
On the radio
Bolo’s parents cried after learning about his death.
Rosalinda and Aurelio, both farmer residents of Minglanilla town, said they were initially unaware that their son held hostage three kids in his neighborhood.
“I just heard it from the news in the radio,” Rosalinda said in Cebuano.
Rosalinda said Allan is the fifth child in a brood of seven.
She said she would have prevented her son’s death if she arrived in the area and talked to him.
Rosalinda said the last time she saw Allan was on All Soul’s Day last Nov. 1.
Rosalinda admitted that Allan was a drunkard and she tried to persuade him to give up drinking to no avail.