Kids overpower hostage-taker

COMPOSITE photo shows policemen securing one of the children held hostage by Rael Aquino (in yellow shirt) for several hours inside a house in Taguig City on Friday. PHOTO BY RAFFY LERMA

Faced with the prospect of being blown up inside their house in Taguig City, a group of children and their 25-year-old cousin worked together to overpower a man who held them captive for several hours Friday afternoon.

At the end of the hostage drama, it was Rael Aquino, a 29-year-old taho (a popular street food made out of fresh silken tofu, thick sugar syrup and sago pearls) vendor, who had to be taken out of the house at Block 11, Lot 17 in Barangay Pinagsama on a stretcher. His face scratched and bloodied, he was brought to a nearby hospital.

Earlier, he was spotted shouting wildly in the street at around noon. Armed with a knife, he then climbed up the roof of a house from where he entered the adjoining three-story house owned by Von Tubello.

Senior Insp. Schadimier Sajili, chief of the police community precinct, said that inside the house were Tubello’s three children aged 2, 10 and 15, their 25-year-old cousin Diane and the family’s 15-year-old housemaid.

Authorities learned about the hostage-taking when at 1 p.m., Tubello returned home to hear his children shouting: “Papa, don’t come inside!”

By 3 p.m., members of the Taguig police, the Southern Police District, a Special Weapons and Tactics team and even Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano had tried to get Aquino to give himself up by talking to him.

Cayetano said that Aquino who was armed with a knife did not seem to be in a proper state of mind. “He said the same things over and over and appeared to be confused,” she added.

RAFFY LERMA

He also made no demands although he asked to speak to Tubello, Cayetano said.

Things came to a head around 4 p.m. when screams were heard coming from inside the house. An alarmed Tubello climbed through a window and found the hostage-taker locked in a struggle with his 15-year-old son, Diane and his other children.

Tubello promptly jumped in and grabbed Aquino as the police forced the front door open. They immediately overpowered Aquino and rescued the children who appeared unhurt.

“It was my kids and niece who tackled the hostage-taker,” confirmed a shaken Tubello when he faced reporters after the rescue. He also expressed his gratitude to the police for providing immediate backup.

Tubello said Aquino had turned on the liquefied petroleum gas tank inside the house with the intention of causing an explosion. At this point, his hostages tried to stop him by tackling him.

A bloodied Aquino who sustained still undetermined injuries was brought out on a stretcher and taken to a hospital for treatment.

Cayetano, meanwhile, said that Tubello’s children would be turned over to the city social welfare department for stress debriefing.