Know your neighborhood crazies: Ex-cop hostage takers, ex-satanic cult member taxi drivers, etc
At noon I was sitting in a taxi, effectively held hostage by radio coverage of that hostage-taking incident.
According to the breathless radio reporters, a former police officer had taken a busload of tourists hostage. At first the hostages were thought to be Korean; later they were revealed to be from Hong Kong.
Apparently the former officer had been dismissed on corruption charges. He demanded that the Sandiganbayan decision be rescinded and that he be reinstated with back pay. And to prove his innocence, he took 25 people hostage.
Was he never required to take an IQ test at some point in his career?
Update, 2048hrs. And yet he managed to hold off dozens of police rescuers and SWAT, advancing retreating advancing retreating with no apparent strategy. They make the hostage-taker look smart and gallant.
According to a newsanchor: Good news! Some of the hostages survived!
Earlier the Palace announced: The Philippine situation is stable despite the hostage taking!
And the media was given total access to police movements, so everything the police did was broadcast live on television for the hostage-taker to watch on the TV inside the bus. Surprise!
IQ tests all around.
* * * * *
William Blake, Satan inflicts boils on Job
I remembered how a few months ago I got a strange (-er than usual) text message from my friend Maricon, who was in a taxi. Without any prodding, the taxi driver had started telling Maricon the story of his life, particularly his experiences as a member of a satanic cult. He started talking faster and faster, as if he were speaking in tongues or something. I told Maricon to record the rant on his phone, and he did. I’d been meaning to transcribe the rant, but you should hear it to believe it.
The cult even had a nickname for Satan: they called him Taning. Apparently prayer groups also use that nickname. It almost sounds like a term of endearment. Hah! John Milton never thought of that.
Here’s the mp3. This is part 1. Warning: May freak out some listeners.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 23rd, 2010 at 19:27
Hi Jessica, a similar weirdo taxi incident happened to me about 3 weeks ago. The man started talking about how he didn’t like it when ill-meaning people would suddenly open his taxi door and do hold-ups… then he was speaking way too fast I thought he was saying things backwards. I lost track of where we were going, the buildings suddenly looked unfamiliar and I would have gotten lost were it not for the street signs. Today, hearing the recording of your quick-thinking friend, I suspect this is the same man. Mag-ingat na lang.
August 23rd, 2010 at 22:37
Filipinos are über smart.
August 24th, 2010 at 10:03
My friends had the misfortune of encountering this cabbie. He apparently drops this ex-satanist spiel to just about everyone. Nakakatakot na nakakatawa if you ask me.
August 24th, 2010 at 11:27
well, he could have won the litwit for his dramatic exit strategy..quite moronic rather.
August 24th, 2010 at 19:20
parang naka-tira si manong (ng isang dosenang kopiko)