Navotas school resumes classes after hostage drama

MANILA, Philippines–Classes resumed at Navotas Polytechnic College (NPC) Thursday morning, almost 24 hours after the school became the stage for a hostage drama which played out in front of a huge crowd of kibitzers.

Virginia Cruz, NPC administrative officer, said that things were back to normal even though questions had been raised about the adequacy of security measures being implemented by school authorities.

“Our president Francisca Roque is coordinating with [Navotas] Congressman [Toby] Tiangco about that,” Cruz said.

NPC has a student population of 2,500.

She added that city hall was planning to increase the number of security guards assigned to the school campus.

“Even before, there were already barangay tanods (village watchmen) making their rounds here. What happened Wednesday was [an isolated incident]. It just so happened that the [hostage-taker] is a former student [so] the guard let him in,” Cruz said.

Meanwhile, charges of serious illegal detention, grave coercion and grave threats were being prepared against Esmeraldo Yarcia III who remains detained at the city police station.

For almost five hours on Wednesday, Yarcia held a school employee hostage as he demanded that he be allowed to air his demands on television.

The television reporters he had asked to see, however, refused, citing company policies which prohibited them from interfering in police operations.

Yarcia later released his hostage, Amy Perez, unharmed and gave himself up to the police without a fight. In subsequent interviews, he said he took Perez hostage to protest the alleged antistudent policies being implemented in a state university which he did not identify.

He clarified, however, that he had nothing against NPC.

Senior Supt. Florendo Quibuyen, Navotas police chief, said that they expected Perez to file charges against Yarcia on Friday.