By ARIS R. ILAGAN
Fourteen persons, most of them women and children, were held hostage by three armed robbers who robbed a passenger bus in Sapang Dalaga, Misamis Occidental yesterday afternoon, reports reaching Camp Crame in Quezon City said.
According to Chief Superintedent Prospero Noble, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Office 9, negotiations initiated by police for the safe release of the hostages were still ongoing.
In a telephone interview, Noble said that passengers of the Rural Transit Bus were robbed by three unidentified armed men along the national highway in Sapang Dalaga, Misamis Occidental at 4 p.m.
Noble added that based on reports, many of the passengers managed to jump out of the bus when the robbers announced the holdup.
The passengers who escaped approached a police checkpoint where they sought refuge.
The robbers commandeered the passenger bus but was blocked by police in an undisclosed place.
At gunpoint, the robbers held hostage about 14 passengers and threatened to shoot them if authorities will not allow them to escape.
Noble said that a crisis management team composed of local government officials and police have started negotiating with the robbers to free their hostages.
Elements of the Misamis Occidental and Zamboanga PNP have cordoned the area to prevent the robbers from escaping with their hostages.
