BREAKING NEWS: Ongoing Hostage Situation at Pasay City

PASAY City - Three adults and five minors were being held hostage by a gun-wielding man in Pasay City Wednesday morning.

A official of Barangay 132 Magtibay St., Pasay City identified the hostage taker as Christopher Magsusay, 56.

A resident said Magsusay was armed with a gun while holding five minors and three adults in a house along Canoy Street. Earlier radio reports mentioned only six hostages.

Authorities said the incident started early Wednesday at about 4 a.m.

The hostage taker was from Imus, Cavite, and was renting a room at the house where the victims lived. Magsusay’s wife, who shares the rented a room, sells corn at a nearby public elementary school.

Pasay City police and special weapons and tactics teams have responded to the scene.

Authorities have yet to determine what prompted Magsusay to take hostages.

Negotiations for the release of the hostages are ongoing as of this writing.




Courtesy of Philippine Daily Inquirer

For real-time updates, please follow Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter, Dennis Maliwanag

A firetruck and ambulance along M Dela Cruz in Pasay where hostage taking ongoing @inquirerdotnet pic.twitter.com/ydzK8OFZFq
— Dennis Maliwanag (@DMaliwanagINQ) February 4, 2015

PASAY SOCIAL WELFARE DEV’T OFFICE RESCUES STREET CHILDREN YEAR-ROUND, NOT JUST FOR PAPAL VISIT

The Pasay City Government, through the Pasay City Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), regularly conducts programmed rescue operations of street children throughout the year within the City and not just for the Papal Visit.



PSWDO Head Rosalinda Orobia said that “the continuous year-long rescue operation are scheduled based on pre-planning and pre-programming of the mission to save children who are born on the streets and children who live in the streets.”

“It is because of this continuous rescue operations within 2014, especially December, that the number of rescued children have markedly decreased.  The rescue operations is a year-round standard activity. It is not because of the Papal Visit,” Orobia stressed.

The PSWDO conducts four (4) rescue operations are every month where children from Pasay temporarily and safely stay at children’s home. This serves as a home for the rescued street children while the Social Development Center located at the MIA that can shelter almost a hundred children is still under renovation.

Children at the center are safely cared for a week or less, and as soon as individual Case Conferences for each child have been conducted with the presence of the parent/s, the Barangay Captain and an assigned social worker, the child will be released to his or her parent/guardian.

Meanwhile, non-Pasay street children are brought to the Nayon ng Kabataan in Mandaluyong and the Haven for Children in Muntinlupa. Both are youth homes under the care and management of the DSWD-National.

Pasay City Administrator Atty. Dennis Acorda said that “the City made it its mission to care for our children. We implement programs and projects specifically for children from birth to education to health care, among others.”

“Street children, for instance, are being rescued from the streets, rigidly undergo counseling together with their parents and are given education and the needed assistance towards their integration to mainstream society,” Atty Acorda said.

Acorda added that “the rescue operations are conducted on a planned and periodic basis throughout the year, not because of the Papal Visit alone.”

Atty. Acorda stressed that the children that were reportedly to be detained during the Papal visit are not from Pasay City and emphasized that “we have no cases of abuse or any related violation among any of our social workers in the City.”

Pope Francis leaves Tacloban ahead of schedule due to Typhoon Amang

TACLOBAN CITY - Pope Francis will depart at 1PM today for Manila due to inclement weather caused by Typhoon Amang. Tacloban is currently under Signal Warning No. 2. The Pope apologized to the religious leaders as he advised them that he had to leave early.

UPDATE: Pope Francis safely arrived in Manila around 2 p.m. The 78-year-old pontiff was flown back to the capital by a Philippine Airlines Airbus A320. High-ranking officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police awaited him.  Members of the military and their families also welcomed the Catholic pontiff, who is on its third of a five-day state and pastoral visit to the Philippines. 

WATCH: LIVE STREAMING Pope Francis Bound for Manila




Pope Francis is set to officiate a mass tomorrow, January 18 at the Quirino Grand Stand in Luneta. The said event is expected to be attended by 6 Million devotees.

VERBATIM: Pope Francis' homily in Tacloban

Here is the homily of Pope Francis in full text during the Mass in Tacloban City for victims of Typhoon Haiyan 'Yolanda'. 

"If you allow me, I prefer today to speak in Spanish. I have a translator, a good translator. May I do that? Thank you very much.

We have a high priest who is capable of symphatizing with our weaknesses but one who is similarly been tested in every way yet without sin. Jesus is like us. Jesus lived like us. Jesus is the same with us in every respect except sin. Because Jesus was not a sinner.

But to be more like us, He assumed our condition and our sin. He made himself unto sin. This is what Saint Paul tells us. Jesus always goes before us. And when we pass and experience a cross, He passed there before us.

And if today we find ourselves 14 months after, 14 months precisely after the typhoon Yolanda hit, it is because we have the security of knowing that we are not going to weaken in our faith, because Jesus has been there before us. In His passion, He assumed all our pain.

I’d like to tell you something close to my heart. 

When I saw from Rome the catastrophe, I felt that I had to be here and on those very days I decided to come here.

I am here to be with you. A little bit late, I have to say, but I am here. 

I come to tell you that Jesus is Lord and He never lets us down. 

Father, you might say to me, I was let down because I have lost so many things, my house, my livelihood. It’s true, if you would say that, and I respect those sentiments, but Jesus there (pointing to the cross), nailed to the cross, and from there, He does not let us down. 

He was consecrated as Lord, on that throne and there He experienced all calamities that we experienced. Jesus is Lord and the Lord from the cross is there for you. 

Therefore, He is capable of understanding us, as we heard in the first reading. In everything, the same as us. 

That is why we have a Lord who is capable of crying with us, capable of walking with us, in the most difficult moments of life. 

So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent. And I walk with you all with my silent heart. Many of you have asked the Lord, why Lord? 

And to each of you, to your heart, Christ responds from His heart upon the cross. 

I have no more words to tell you, let us look to Christ, He is the Lord. He understands us because He underwent all the trials that we, that you, have experienced. And beside the cross was His mother. We are like this little child, just there. 

In the moments when we have so much pain, when we no longer understand anything, all we can do is grab hold of her hand firmly. And say, Mom, as a child does to a mother, when he or she feels fear. 

It is perhaps the only word we can say in such difficult times, Mother, Mom. 

Let us together hold a moment of silence, let us look to that Christ on the cross. He understands us because He endured everything. Let us look to our mother, and like that little child, let us grab hold of her mantle, and with a true heart, say, mother. 

In silence, let us say this prayer, say it to the mother, what you feel in your heart. 

(Silence) 

Let us know that we have Mother Mary and our great brother Jesus, we are not alone. We also have many brothers who in this moment of catastrophe came to help you, and we too, because of this we feel more brothers and sisters, because we helped each other. 

This is what comes from my heart and forgive me if I have no other words to express this: But please know, Jesus never lets you down. Please know that the love and tenderness of Mother Mary never lets you down. 

And holding on to her mantle and with the power that comes from Jesus love on the cross, let us move forward, always forward, and walk together as brothers and sisters in the Lord forward. 

Thank you very much."

PASAY CITY MAYOR CALIXTO ASKS FOR DISCIPLINE DURING THE 'PAPAL VISIT'

Pasay the “TRAVEL CITY” Mayor Antonino Calixto calls on both residents and visitors of Pasay to practice restraint and discipline during the Pope Francis’ historic five-day visit to the Philippines.

Mayor Calixto made the special announcement in the aftermath of the Feast of the Black Nazarene estimated to be attended by 5.5 million by the Philippine National Red Cross and resulted yielded two casualties and more than 1,500 persons having sought medical help.

The two casualties were reported to be due to injuries during a stampede before the start of the procession and a heart attack. 

High blood pressure, injuries, lacerations, nausea, difficulty in breathing, seizure and sprains were some of the cases attended to by emergency medical personnel posted during the Black Nazarene procession.

“We expect people wanting to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis to be more than the number of devotees during the Feast of the Black Nazarene last January 9. Pasay is the first and last stop of Pope Francis here in the Philippines” Mayor Calixto said. 

Calixto added that “we anticipate not just Catholics from Pasay and Metro Manila but also from all parts of the Philippines and even from other countries to see Pope Francis. All hotels and inns within Pasay are practically fully booked.”

Pasay has the 3rd most number of room accommodations from high end hotel suites to budget inns in the country.

Mayor Calixto is reminding the motoring public to be cooperative and obey the traffic rerouting scheme and road closures set in place for the Papal visit. 



Constant and regular advisories are being issued by the City’s Public Information Office through the traditional as well as the social media.

Calixto also reminded the public to throw their thrash in the designated garbage bins strategically located along and near the Papal routes.

Pasay City is home to Villamor Airbase where the Papal entourage is expected to land on January 15, be sent off to Tacloban on January 17 and back to the Vatican on the 19th of January.

The Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay is also the venue for Pope Francis’ Meeting With the Families on January 16.