Drug addict takes daughter hostage

MANILA, Philippines - A domestic spat between a couple addicted to illegal drugs led the man to take their 10-year-old daughter hostage in Caloocan City yesterday morning.

Evenzel Rubinas, 44, then tried to slash his throat using a broken bottle in his detention cell at the Caloocan police station at past noon, city police chief Senior Superintendent Bartolome Bustamante said.

 “The police officers did not know where he got the broken bottle he used to slash his neck. He was rushed to the Caloocan Medical Center  and is now under observation. We will look into this,” he said.

Rubinas, who hawks television remote control devices, told The STAR that he and his wife were quarrelling at around 8 a.m. yesterday because he was not able to share his stash of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu with her.

“I was so mad and lost control so I grabbed my daughter and threatened everyone not to come near me,” Rubinas said shortly before he was taken to his detention cell.

Bustamante said it took negotiators an hour to convince Rubinas to release his daughter. The two were in a box, measuring three feet by three feet, underneath their house.

The girl was treated at a hospital for lacerations on her neck.

Rubinas said he had been going without food or sleep for five days prior to the incident and had been drinking heavily after taking shabu.

Minutes before his suicide try, Rubinas said he was remorseful and willing to accept his fate.

Superintendent Ferdie del Rosario, city police deputy chief for administration, said Rubinas managed to reach for the bottle outside the detention cell. He took the bottle into the cell’s bathroom, broke it and slashed his throat.

Four other detainees who shared the detention cell with Rubinas alerted police officers to his suicide attempt.