Police will today file four charges against a former overseas worker who held his wife and children hostage in their house in Naga City Saturday.
Supt. Brindo Nacario, chief of police of Naga City, said the hostage-taker, Veroni Bacon, 48, will be charged with illegal possession of firearms, illegal detention, child abuse and violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act.
Nacario said the .357 cal. revolver that Bacon used in the incident was unlicensed.
Bacon will also be charged with child abuse for detaining his one-year-old child and violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act for hurting his wife who sustained bruises on her arms.
Bacon, who was disarmed and arrested after the 12-hour hostage-taking incident last Saturday, was detained at the Naga City Police Station.
According to his relatives, Bacon was allegedly under the influence of methampetamine (shabu).
Police however said they won’t be filing a drug charge against Bacon because there were no illegal drugs found in his possession as well as in his house.
Nacario, however, recommended that Bacon undergo drug rehabilitation.
Yesterday, Bacon’s wife agreed to meet him at the police station after he requested for a meeting.
“I asked my wife to forgive me,” Bacon told Cebu Daily News in Bisayan.
“She only nodded her head, when I told her that I really didn’t know what I was doing,” he added.
When asked why he held his family hostage, Bacon said, “I only remember hearing a sound from the kitchen, and so I called for a barangay officer to come to our house in case there was a robber.” “My wife and I quarrelled then because she insisted no one was there. Then after that I didn’t know anything that was happening anymore,” he said.
Bacon’s wife and two children have been reportedly sent home from the hospital where they were taken after they were rescued from being held hostage by Bacon.
His wife and children live in a separate home from Bacon. /UP TACLOBAN Intern Le-an Lai Lacaba
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