Manhunt still on for Agusan hostage takers

PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur, Philippines – Police said manhunt operations were ongoing against armed men who took a group of teachers and other folk hostage last April 1, saying they pose danger to other people.

Senior Superintendent Jerome Sale Baxinela, provincial police director, said it would be difficult for the suspects to return to Barangay La Purisima here, as military and police forces were monitoring their movements there.

Baxinela admitted that his office has yet to file charges against the suspects, three of them minors, as the affidavits of 12 of the hostages still have to be prepared.

Two of the minors were also tagged in another hostage-taking incident in December 2009 but were placed under the custody of the provincial social welfare office.

Citing police records, Baxinela said the two minors, now 17, escaped from the social welfare office. Another suspect is 16 years old, he added.

Meanwhile, Baxinela could not explain why hostage taker Allan Brital Perez, an elder brother of Ondo Perez, leader of the armed group, and another suspect were included by the crisis management committee as among the released hostage victims.

Alan Perez and 12 others, eight of them school teachers, were presented to the media as the hostages abandoned by the suspects in a press conference at the house of Prosperidad Mayor Alvin Magdamit last April 6.