By CYRUS M. GARDE
BACOLOD City — The man who took bus passengers hostage in Hinigaran town the other day was high on drugs and hallucinating, police said.
Richard Villanueva (not Roland, as earlier reported), it turned out, was also involved in robbery incidents in his hometown of Kabankalan City.
Police will file today charges for illegal possession of firearm against Villanueva, a former member of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu), before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office here.
A homemade .38-caliber pistol with four ammunition was seized from Villanueva, 27, of Sitio Buri, Barangay 4, Kabankalan.
Aside from this, he is also facing serious illegal detention charges that the bus passengers plan to file, said Chief Inspector Lino Dalisay, Hinigaran police chief.
Villanueva was under the influence of drugs when he boarded a Ceres bus at a terminal in Hinigaran and took the passengers hostage at about 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dalisay said.
“He definitely was high,” Dalisay said. Villanueva’s mother herself admitted to the police that her son was a drug user, he said.
Villanueva drew out his gun and ordered the driver to take the bus to Kabankalan.
The driver, however, jumped out of the bus. Villanueva tried to drive the bus himself, but the engine failed. He also threatened to shoot the passengers.
One of the passengers, Mark Lawrence Palmos of Barangay Tuyuman, Cauayan, grabbed Villanueva’s firearm.
The two grappled. The pistol went off but the slug was stuck in the barrel.
The passengers then dragged Villanueva out of the bus and mobbed and hit him.
Police arrested him and took him to the Hinigaran Municipal Health Center after he sustained injuries.
Palmos and other passengers will file serious illegal detention charges against Villanueva, Dalisay said.
It turned out that the hostage-taking incident on Sunday was not the only trouble Villanueva, a former member of Cafgu in Kabankalan, was in.
Villanueva and his group were suspects in a series of robberies in Kabankalan, Dalisay said.
In fact, they have a pending warrant of arrest for robbery issued just this Jan. 6.
Prior to the incident, Villanueva was on his way home onboard a Ceres bus from Bacolod City, but he alighted in Bago City due to a misunderstanding with the conductor.
He boarded another bus but alighted again in Valladolid for the same reason. He took another bus and reached the Hinigaran terminal.
Dalisay said they will try to establish the mental condition of the suspect, who was detained in the Hinigaran police station./PN
