Hostage expert is one of Philippine’s 10 best cops

By Tarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Supt. Sidney Villaflor took a chance on a tighter shot amid a drizzle and a power blackout. In a split second, the hostage-taking drama ended with a single, nonfatal bullet wound in the right shoulder of the knife-wielding man.

Villaflor, the hostage negotiator and police chief of San Jose City in Nueva Ecija, was recalling the three-hour evening standoff on Sept. 28, 2008, in which both the hostage-taker and his captive were safe after the gunfire.

It might have been far in proportions from the Aug. 23 hostage-taking on a tourist bus in Manila this year, but it was challenging nonetheless. And for the officer manning a city of almost 200,000 with just 70 men, it was a “win-win” finish to one of the most difficult cases he has faced in his 18 years in the force.

For averting a tragic end to the incident and cultivating close ties with the San Jose community in anticrime efforts, Villaflor has been one of the 10 police officers chosen for this year’s most outstanding men in uniform in annual awards of the Metrobank Foundation, PSBank and the Rotary Club of New Manila-East.

The winners of the Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service (COPS) will formally receive their awards in Malacañang on Tuesday, a recognition that comes while the Philippine National Police grapples with criticisms for a bungled rescue mission in last week’s hostage drama, not only at home but also from around the world.

The force is under fire for the death of eight Hong Kong tourists held hostage by a dismissed police officer, Rolando Mendoza, on board their bus. Standing on an already shaky human rights record, the PNP is also under investigation after the release of a video showing a Manila precinct commander allegedly torturing a robbery suspect.

So many demands

In the San Jose case, Villaflor said the hostage-taker—a farmer enraged by his separation from his wife and three children—had “so many demands.”

Aside from his wife and three children, the farmer wanted “fried chicken, cigarettes, his siblings, the barangay captain … Unfortunately, after giving him all his demands, the negotiations deteriorated and he was on the verge of stabbing his mother,” Villaflor said of that night almost two years ago.
After the farmer was hit in the shoulder, his hostage—his own 84-year-old mother—was saved from what would have been fatal stabs he was about to take before Villaflor pulled the trigger.

“It would have been an easier shot to aim at his head, but I opted to shoot him on his shoulder even though it was risky because he was hiding behind his hostage. But I opted to endeavor a win-win ending where no one will die,” he told the Inquirer.

As police officers across the country reel from the Manila hostage-taking backlash, Villaflor reminded the public that many other officers remained steadfast to their sworn duty.