Inheritance row leads to hostage-taking

JANIUAY, Iloilo - For 73-year-old Benedicto Yu, it must have been disheartening to see his two sons fighting over their inheritance - a house here and other properties he has built over the years from his lumber, hardware and construction supply business.

The dispute took an ugly twist last Monday when Benedicto's eldest son, Alan, 31, barged into the family residence here occupied by his brother Neil, 28, and wife Jonah.

With Neil in Iloilo City, 33 kilometers from this town, Alan, who was carrying a CZ75 9-mm. pistol, told the six months' pregnant Jonah to leave the house and when she refused, he took her hostage.

"Alan tried to tell Jonah to abandon the residence, but his brother's wife would not listen and he decided to lock all the doors and windows and take his sister in-law hostage," said Chief Inspector Eugenio Espejo, this town's police chief.

During the hostage drama, Alan demanded the presence of his father to decide on the equal distribution of his and his brother's inheritance.

According to the old man, his two sons took over the family's construction supply business in 1990. Rivalry between the siblings surfaced when Alan discovered what he claimed were irregularities in the distribution of properties and legal ownership of the business.

Alan said his brother and his wife should leave the family residence "because it is not his (Neil's) house and property."

After five hours of negotiations, Alan gave himself up and yielded his pistol and 48 bullets to this town's mayor, Frankie Locsin, provincial board member Bienvenido Margarico and his father who promised to settle his sons' dispute over their inheritance.

Neil was furious upon learning about the incident. "My wife told me that Alan pointed a gun at her and instructed her to abandon the house," he said, threatening to file charges of illegal detention against his brother.

Alan claimed he did not take his sister-in-law hostage, but merely told her to abandon the house that was not theirs. Neil and his wife occupied the house after getting married a few years ago, while Alan relocated to Iloilo City.

For the troubled father that Benedicto Yu is now, selling all his properties and dividing the money equally between his two sons seems to be the best way to settle the problem.

"Maybe my two sons envy each other over the ownership of the properties," he lamented.