Police negotiating with hostage-taker in Camarines Sur

PILI, Camarines Sur-—Police were still negotiating Tuesday afternoon with a 35-year-old man who was holding hostage his own father, a brother, a sister-in-law and a household helper in their home in Barangay (village) New San Roque here.

Rogelio Regondola, vice mayor of Pili and head of the hostage crisis committee, said there were five persons inside the house, namely, the  hostage-taker Anthony Zepeda, 35, his father Expedito, brother Victor, the latter’s wife, and a house helper when the hostage situation began around 9 a.m.

Regondola, in an interview, however, could not as yet identify Victor’s wife and the house helper.

Senior Inspector Benjamin Spaña, Pili police chief, said in an interview that a second house helper, whom he identified as Gello Gallardo, 14, was able to escape when the commotion started during breakfast.

Gallardo told police that before he fled the house, Expedito and Anthony were arguing and he saw Anthony hit his father with a chair.

Spaña said Anthony fired a gun indiscriminately, wounding three persons. Two of the injured were identified as Rubilyn Adizas, who sustained a wound in the abdomen, and Rene Becensio who was hit on the shoulder.

The hostage situation was going on at a one-hectare compound where a facility for the production of animal feeds owned by the family is located, added Spaña.

He said traffic had been rerouted to the diversion road and motorists were prevented from entering the town center of Pili, where the incident is ongoing.