Soldier takes 30 bus passengers hostage

DEL GALLEGO, Camarines Sur—An Army soldier in full battle gear, reportedly incensed by suspicions his wife was cheating on him, held over 30 passengers of a Manila-bound Peñafrancia Tours bus hostage for four hours on Friday but surrendered peacefully, police said.

The hostage drama began shortly after noon along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay Comadaycaday, Del Gallego, Camarines Sur, causing a four-hour traffic jam several kilometers long, authorities reported.

The hostage-taker, identified as Army Cpl. Rene Prajele, 36, of the 31st Infantry Battalion in Sorsogon, surrendered at 4:30 p.m. to a joint Army-police hostage crisis team that barricaded the road.

Police spokesperson Maria Luisa Calubaquip said the report was that Prajele, a resident of Baao town in Camarines Sur and a soldier of 11 years, was angry over suspicions his wife was cheating on him.

“He was heavily burdened, that’s why he did it, ” Calubaquib had told Agence France Presse.

Prajele boarded a Bobis Line bus in Naga City taking his government issued M16 rifle. He disembarked in Pamplona town as an Army team headed by Col. Amador Tabuga Jr. was tailing him and asking him to surrender at 11:45 a.m.

But instead of heeding his superior, he flagged down the Peñafrancia bus and took control of it at about 12:30 p.m.

The bus was stopped at a joint police-military checkpoint along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay Comadaycaday.

“While negotiations were ongoing at 4 p.m. Prajele told the crisis team that he did not have plans of hurting any of the passengers and that he only wanted to speak with his battalion commander to discuss personal matters,” said Chief Supt. Victor Deona, Bicol police chief.

Prior to the hostage taking incident, policemen manning a checkpoint were already told to stop a bus with an armed soldier on board who had left his camp in Sorsogon without informing his superiors.

SPO4 Augosto Destura, head of the Highway Patrol Group in Del Gallego who flagged down the Peñafrancia bus, said the Army contacted them to stop the bus. The road was closed while the officers convinced Prajele to give up. Vehicles were told to take a detour via Daet, Camarines Norte.

The crisis team that negotiated with Prajele was led by Tabuga, the commander of the the 902nd Infantry Brigade, Del Gallego Mayor Lydia Abarientos.

A 6-year-old niece of Prajele was even brought in to also help in the negotiation, said Capt. Marjorie Panesa, spokesperson of the Armed Forces in Bicol.

After his surrender, Prajele was brought to the Del Gallego police station, according to Del Gallego Mayor Lydia Abarientos.

He will then be brought to Camp Elias Angeles Hospital for assessment of his mental and physical condition, according to Panesa.

The Philippine National Police will determine where he will be detained or if he would be turned over to Army custody. Mar Arguelles, Shiena Barrameda and Juan Escandor Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon; and AFP