By Romeo Ranoco

Traditionally, Filipinos are gun lovers, particularly in the southern Philippines, where almost every household keeps a rifle or a pistol at home. I know someone who said “I can let go of my wife, but I can’t live without my Armalite”. Thus, I got excited when I was asked to do a gun culture picture story, focusing on a pistol-packing judge who helps train fellow magistrates and lawyers at a target range.

FULL FOCUS GALLERY: ARMED JUSTICE

When one talks about a pistol-packing judge, one person immediately comes to my mind, a legendary former police officer who traded his blue uniform for a black robe. Jaime “Jimmy” Santiago is a celebrity in his own right. The presiding judge of branch 3 of Manila’s Regional Trial Court, Jimmy was a police officer a quarter of a century ago. He rose to celebrity status when as a commander of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit in the Philippine capital city Manila, he rescued several victims and “neutralized” a total of six gunmen in several separate hostage-taking incidents. His exploits were eventually made into a full-length movie, entitled “SPO4 Santiago, Sharpshooter”.

When I came to see him at his office, I knew I was in the right place. It was quite a normal office, but one wall was decorated with an M-16 Armalite rifle and shotgun. His office is just next to the courtroom where he hears criminal and civil cases. I had the chance to see him in action, sitting on the bench and listening to lawyers from both sides arguing and issuing his orders after hearing the cases. He agreed to talk to me for a few minutes before clearing his desk of cases and our chat touched on a subject close to his heart. At one point, he mentioned an incident at a court house on central Cebu island, where a Canadian national went on a shooting spree, killing two and wounding a prosecutor. At this point, he emphasized the need to arm judges and lawyers in the country so they can protect themselves from threats coming from some disgruntled litigants who couldn’t accept losing a case.

With just minutes to spare, he gathered his robe and prepared to conduct a court hearing. I also equipped myself and went around shooting pictures of him inside the courtroom. I was struck by what I saw in his half-opened drawer as he sat on the bench, there was a loaded .45 caliber pistol in it and the judge appeared ready to shoot back if attacked.

I got to know him even better as I accompanied him the next day to a shooting range where he practiced with his fellow judges and lawyers. He taught them how to handle their pistols properly and shoot effectively.

After a couple of rounds, it was clear Jimmy hadn’t lost his touch. He remains a sharpshooter. There was even one target which he spotted only using the reflection on his watch. When we got the target paper, it was all Alpha.

I remember a local journalist who covered Judge Santiago saying when Jimmy was still a SWAT member every time there was a hostage drama, Jimmy was always on site to be the main negotiator. With his sharp shooter reputation, to the hostage taker it was either surrender peacefully or pray he’d miss, which was very unlikely.

As the day ended, I walked with him to his car. Before driving away he never forgets to put his .45 caliber pistol beside him – a man who regards safety as a priority.

By Romeo Ranoco

Long before U.S. President Barack Obama allowed female soldiers to be deployed for combat duties, the Philippines has been doing exactly that for several years, in particular among those in the Marines.

I was excited to photograph some of the women during a military exercise at a Marine base south of the capital Manila. This was not the first time that I had taken pictures of female soldiers during training exercises, but I volunteered again because this time I would be documenting new recruits.

I arrived at the base in the afternoon and was immediately briefed by the training officers, discussing my interest and the pictures that I would like to take. I wanted to take pictures of female soldiers trying out to join the “few and proud” Marines, showing their capabilities and comparing their skills, stamina and endurance with male soldiers.

There were 30 new women soldiers, about a platoon-size, trying out to be part of a Marine reconnaissance company to be organized for deployment on a troubled southern island in the Philippines. I found them fumbling over a rubber boat as they responded with confusion to orders barked by a drill sergeant. But, as they kept on rehearsing how to position themselves in a rubber boat, they were able to perfect the drills with amazing precision.

That night, I visited the women’s barracks and my camera captured them cleaning their assault rifles. A female Marine who escorted me allowed me to take some more pictures of the recruits dismantling, cleaning and putting their assault rifles back together.

The next day, I was awakened at 3 a.m. with female voices counting repeatedly from 1 to 8. I went out from my quarters and saw the female recruits doing their morning exercises. I started taking pictures after sunrise and went back to the beach to watch the rubber boat drill. This time, the female recruits did well and were comparable with the stronger, faster and more agile men.

After the mock boat raid, I followed the female Marines on to grassy slopes in the hills of Ternate, Cavite as they simulated a jungle patrol. When they reached a clearing, martial arts instructors were waiting for them for Kali drills. A few hours later, they joined the male recruits in field drills, marching in perfect cadence, before taking lunch. I was surprised to see the recruits eating with bananas placed on top of their head.

I couldn’t help but take pictures of the women eating lunch while balancing bananas on their heads. When I asked an officer why they were doing this I was told that it was a form of discipline and training. The recruits would be forced to eat the banana, including its peel, if the fruit dropped from their head.

There are about 350 women among the 10,000-member Philippine Marines. The women Marines undergo the same rigorous physical, mental and emotional training the male recruits go through. Since 2006, the women Marine officers and enlisted personnel have been deployed on combat duties, taking part in infantry, armor, artillery and even airborne operations. In fact, one female Marine served as a tank commander during a combat operation to free Italian Catholic missionary Giancarlo Bossi in July 2007 near Tipo-tipo town on southern Basilan island, a stronghold of the al Qaeda-linked Abu sayyaf Islamic militants. She was wounded in an assault on their Muslim rebel jungle base.

Women Marines are now volunteering to undergo more punishing and excruciating training to join special operation units, including scuba and sky diving or marksmanship units.

Before returning to the capital Manila, I had the chance to talk to one female recruit and asked her why she decided to risk her life and limbs to join the Marines. “I am doing this for my family and I really love challenges and risks. I cannot imagine myself as a teacher but I love wearing a combat uniform,” the 24-year-old recruit and eldest of three siblings said. “My father is a fireman and I am fascinated with his work. I told myself, if a man can do it, I can do it even better.”

At times, she said she fears for her life and safety but she has learned to control this. “From the start, when I enlisted, I know the risks and dangers, so I have to face them squarely.” When asked if she has regrets in joining the Marines, she quickly and firmly responded” “NO, Sir!”

When I saw a headline in a local paper that the number of Filipino families experiencing hunger had risen from 4.3 million to 4.5 million, I called my sources in the slum district of Baseco community in Tondo, Manila.

I was told there would be a feeding program for children sponsored by South Korean missionaries later in the afternoon. When I arrived, I was surprised to see hundreds of children gathered outside the missionary house waiting for a free meal.

I have covered this kind of subject several times but this time I was so emotional seeing lots of hungry children, most of them barefoot and dirty. When a man distributing food stubs arrived, all the children rushed and scrambled to get one. I noticed a girl carrying her brother on her back amid the scramble.

The place could not accommodate all 300 children to eat at one time so they took turns.

Children ate quickly with their bare hands so that others could eat too. While watching them hungrily eating and continuing to fire the shutter on my camera, I profusely thanked God that my children don’t go hungry and do not need to scramble for a free meal.

I came back to the area the next Sunday, as I was told that more than one thousand children were being fed over the weekends. True enough I saw more hungry children. A mother accompanying her five children told me, “I’m bringing my kids here because we cannot afford for them to feed three times a day”.

It is really very depressing to see fellow Filipinos experiencing poverty and children going hungry every day. I’m sure this kind of situation is happening all over the country.

The new tourism promotion slogan of the government, “It’s more fun in the Philippines” came into my mind. I hope the tourists the government would like to come to the Philippines don’t see hungry children and don’t feel the way I felt while taking these photos.

The trip to Aliaga town in Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila took an hour longer than usual due to rising flood waters in Manila and surrounding areas. I arrived in the barangay of Bibiclat before 5am, allowing me enough time to talk to residents and ask for directions to where devotees, called “Taong Putik” or literally Mud People, start their preparations as part of a yearly festival honoring the village’s patron saint, John the Baptist. In other parts of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, people use St. John the Baptist’s feast day to engage in revelry that includes dousing water on unknowing passersby.

One resident pointed me to the rice fields where devotees apply mud to their faces or whole bodies to show humility. Luckily, I arrived while the devotees were just starting their yearly ritual, also called Pagsa-San Juan. Apart from putting mud all over their bodies, the devotees wear costumes made from vines, dried grass and leaves.

The Taong Putik Festival has been observed in Aliaga for decades, with its exact origins unknown. Some say an image of St. John the Baptist was brought to Bibiclat, meaning snake in the northern Ilocano dialect, by early settlers, which helped drive away poisonous snakes from the village. According to another legend, Japanese soldiers during World War II changed their mind about executing all the men in the village in retaliation for the death of 13 fellow soldiers after it rained so hard. Residents believed the Japanese soldiers’ change of heart was a miracle of St. John the Baptist, and they promised to pay homage to him on his feast day.

I interviewed one of the devotees, Mario Guda, 55, who said he has been taking part in the festival as a Taong Putik since he was a teenager. He prays to St. John the Baptist for forgiveness for all his sins, including his uncontrollable temper when he is drunk.

Two girls, both teenagers, said while they were applying mud on their faces that they were participating in the festival as a sacrifice so that their patron would grant their wish that their parents pass required medical tests for the work in Saudi Arabia. Nearly a tenth of the Philippines’ population of over 94 million work and live overseas, sending home money to feed, clothe and finance the education of their families.

Devotees covered in mud and dried leaves then parade along the main street of Aliaga town to the church where a mass was to be celebrated in honor of Saint John the Baptist. The sermon lasted for an hour, enough time for me to find good images. The devotees received communion and were later blessed by a Catholic priest. After the mass, the devotees carried their patron saint and a formal procession is held along the main street. The rain suddenly began to pour, giving the devotees, and myself, a free wash.

I didn’t really know what to expect on the eight-hour drive up to Isabela province in the northeast of Luzon island after it was hit by Megi, a super typhoon with winds in excess of 250 kph (155 mph).

I knew it was a strong typhoon – the strongest in the world this year – but even so, standing in Cauyan town, I was shocked. The scale of devastation was enormous and it’s obvious why a state of calamity has been declared.

As a Filipino, I’ve experienced many typhoons – they are a fact of life here, with more than 20 a year hitting the country on average. Last year, Manila was flooded by a once-in-a-lifetime storm. But this was different.

Thousands of houses and huts were knocked down. People searched through the remains of where they once lived, looking for their valuables, their mementos, and anything that could be salvaged to use in the rebuilding process.

Cars were blown to the sides of roads and motorized three-wheelers had been hurled into flattened rice fields. Across the northern provinces more than 350,000 tonnes of rice, about five percent of the country’s December quarter harvest, had been destroyed.

Nothing was spared – schools, government buildings and churches carry scars of Megi, or Juan as the storm was named in the Philippines. Fallen trees lie across roads, fields and houses. Power lines were blown down, so there is no power, and communication channels were knocked out.

Coastal towns were cut off completely. It would take two days for disaster officials to get access to the affected region and the story there is the same. Massive losses of housing and widespread devastation.

On Thursday, President Benigno Aquino will make an inspection by air and help distribute relief goods to typhoon victims. The government says nearly 1.7 million people were directly affected by Megi and the bill for the damage to agriculture and infrastructure is estimated at 8.3 billion pesos (nearly $200 million).

Megi killed at least 33 Filipinos. So far, quite amazingly given the destruction I saw, there have been only three deaths recorded in the eastern provinces where the typhoon first hit, and the national total is also relatively low.

In July, a smaller typhoon changed direction unexpectedly and hit Manila. More than 100 people died and power supplies to the city were cut. Aquino sacked the chief forecaster and admonished the emergency services for their preparation.

This time things were different. In the days leading up to Megi’s expected impact, there were regular updates on its path and strength from weather forecasters. Storm warnings were raised early and disaster management agencies prepared evacuation centers and people in at-risk areas were evacuated.

Maybe lessons were learned.

Police could be seen removing a body from the front of the bus before entering the vehicle. At least four hostages left the bus alive, but TV images also showed more bodies being removed.

(For a Slideshow: Bus hijack in Manila, click here)

The end of the day-long stand-off came more than an hour after police commandos had moved in to surround the bus following a series of shots heard by a Reuters reporter at the scene. The driver of the bus was seen running to safety after the gunshots.

A police spokesman said commandos had earlier shot out the tyres of the bus to immobilise the vehicle.

The gunman, identified as 55-year-old Rolando Mendoza who was armed with an M-16 assault rifle, had stopped the bus, which initially had 25 people on board, across a wide road in Manila’s biggest park on Monday morning.

Mendoza had threatened to kill the hostages in a live telephone interview with a local radio station.

“I can see there are many SWAT teams arriving, they are all around,” Mendoza, speaking in Tagalog, had said. “I know they will kill me, I’m telling them to leave because anytime I will do the same here.”

Earlier, via a handwritten note stuck to the bus door, Mendoza said a “big deal” would happen after 3 p.m. (0700 GMT), but the deadline passed without incident.

SOME HOSTAGES FREED

Six Hong Kong nationals and two Filipinos, mainly women and children, had been released before the deadline and a ninth, another Filipino, was freed after it had passed.

Mendoza had earlier asked for food for those remaining on the bus, which was delivered, and fuel to keep the air-conditioning going during the heat.

Mendoza’s brother, Gregorio, told a local TV station that his brother was upset by his dismissal from the force. Local media said he had been sacked for reasons including extortion, and due to his sacking he had lost his retirement benefits.

“His problem was he was unjustly removed from service. There was no due process, no hearing, no complaint,” said Gregorio, who was later taken into custody by police.

Stuck to the bus door was a piece of paper with the handwritten message: “BIG MISTAKE TO CORRECT A BIG WRONG DECISION”. A larger piece of paper on the front windshield was headed “RELEASE FINAL DECISION” and then what appeared to be details of his case.

The road was cordoned off, with the bus isolated inside the park. Several ambulances and a fire engine were on standby.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said it wanted police to “take all the necessary measures to secure the release and to protect the security and safety of our nationals”.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee told reporters authorities were very concerned about the incident. Two officials were being sent to Manila and a hotline was being set up in Hong Kong for families of the hostages.

(Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco and Karen Lema in Manila and James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Writing by John Mair; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Alex Richardson)

(For more news visit Reuters India)

Two negotiators had approached the bus and spoken to the gunman, identified by police as Rolando Mendoza. He gave the negotiators a list of demands, local television reported.

Mendoza, armed with a M-16 rifle and small arms, had released seven hostages: a man, three women and three children, police said. He asked for food for the remaining 18 on the bus, which was delivered, and fuel to keep the air-conditioning going.

A Manila police spokesman said Mendoza was cooperating with the authorities and that the use of force would be a last resort.

“They are all safe, no untoward incident has been reported,” Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno told radio station DZMM of the tourists on the bus.

Police had established a landline connection with the bus, which was stopped across the eight-lane park road in front of the Quirino grandstand, where President Benigno Aquino III had taken his oath of office on June 30.

Metro Manila police chief Leocadio Santiago said the gunman was a former police officer who had been dismissed from the force, and was demanding reinstatement.

The road was cordoned off, with the bus isolated inside the park. Nearby construction work was halted. A sizeable crowd has gathered. Several ambulances and a fire engine were on standby about 500 metres away, behind the police line.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee told reporters authorities were very concerned about the incident. Two officials were being sent to Manila and a hotline was being set up in Hong Kong for families of the hostages.

“The information we’ve received so far is that no one is injured,” Lee said in Hong Kong.

He said he hoped the incident would be peaceful resolved and the hostages were released “safely and as quickly as possible.”

(Additional reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Editing by John Mair and Tomasz Janowski)

Two negotiators had approached the bus and spoken to the gunman, identified by police as Rolando Mendoza. He gave the negotiators a list of demands, local television reported.

Mendoza, armed with a M-16 rifle and small arms, had released seven hostages: a man, three women and three children, police said. He asked for food for the remaining 18 on the bus, which was delivered, and fuel to keep the air-conditioning going.

A Manila police spokesman said Mendoza was cooperating with the authorities and that the use of force would be a last resort.

“They are all safe, no untoward incident has been reported,” Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno told radio station DZMM of the tourists on the bus.

Police had established a landline connection with the bus, which was stopped across the eight-lane park road in front of the Quirino grandstand, where President Benigno Aquino III had taken his oath of office on June 30.

Metro Manila police chief Leocadio Santiago said the gunman was a former police officer who had been dismissed from the force, and was demanding reinstatement.

The road was cordoned off, with the bus isolated inside the park. Nearby construction work was halted. A sizeable crowd has gathered. Several ambulances and a fire engine were on standby about 500 meters away, behind the police line.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee told reporters authorities were very concerned about the incident. Two officials were being sent to Manila and a hotline was being set up in Hong Kong for families of the hostages.

“The information we’ve received so far is that no one is injured,” Lee said in Hong Kong.

He said he hoped the incident would be peaceful resolved and the hostages were released “safely and as quickly as possible.”

(Additional reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Editing by John Mair and Tomasz Janowski)

Mayon Volcano, known for its near-perfect cone shape in the coconut-growing central Bicol region, has been spewing ash and burning mud and rocks for more than a week. Officials have evacuated nearly 50,000 residents from around the base of the volcano.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo flew on Wednesday to Albay province where Mayon Volcano is located to inspect the government’s disaster preparedness plan. She briefly talked to some of the evacuees and handed out relief goods.

Authorities said they monitored distinct indicators of a hazardous eruption, such as continuous lava flows, rumbling sounds and ash explosions coupled with sulphuric dioxide emission from the volcano.

“We can’t exactly predict when the big bang will come, but the volcanic activities are getting more intense from the time we raised the alert level to 4 on Sunday,” the state’s chief vulcanologist, Renato Solidum, said, adding stronger tremors were felt on Wednesday and gas emissions were increasing.

“We’re ready to raise the alert to the highest level if we start to see a hazardous eruption, characterized by taller ash columns, extensive ashfalls and pyroclastic materials racing down on the slopes.”

Level 4 indicates an eruption is imminent and the maximum alert level 5 means a dangerous eruption is underway.

A major eruption is not expected to impact the country’s farm output with mostly subsistence farmers tilling the land around the volcano. An eruption will not have any impact on industry either as there is no major industry in the area.

But an eruption could boost local tourism as travelers head to Albay like they did during Mayon volcano’s last eruption in 2006. Mayon’s most destructive eruption was in February 1841, when lava flows buried a town and killed 1,200 people.

Troops enforced an extended 10-km (5-6 mile) no-go zone, patrolled the area and imposed a 24-hour curfew to prevent people from returning to their homes and farms. Army medical teams were also sent to shelter areas.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Rosemarie Francisco and Sugita Katyal)