Cavite bank hostage-taking ends; 4 suspects caught

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Philippines—Eight employees of the Masuwerte Rural Bank of Bacoor in Barangay Kalinisan, Bacoor, Cavite were held hostage for almost three hours by four armed men on Thursday.

The four men, armed with Armalites, entered the bank past noon to rob it but an alert employee immediately notified police by phone who, in turn, promptly cordoned off the bank before the robbers could flee.

Cornered inside the bank, the robbers decided to hold the bank’s employees hostage, said Chief Supt. Gil Meneses, police director of Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

Meneses said there were no clients inside the bank at the time the hostage taking started.

A male bookkeeper was released past 2 p.m., Meneses said, to relay the demand of the hostage-takers for a vehicle and to negotiate their surrender to a media personality.

The remaining seven bank employees were also freed shortly after negotiations with police. None of the hostage-takers’ demands were given, police said.

Bacoor Mayor Strike Revilla, in a phone interview, said no one was hurt. The armed men, he said, turned themselves in. “We saw their goodwill when they first released one of the hostages,” he said.

Police are keeping custody of the suspects, whose identities were not immediately made public.

The bank employees were taken briefly to a hospital for medical tests. All were allowed to leave the hospital after the brief tests.