A disgruntled former security guard injured one person and held hostage 30 other employees of V-Mall in Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan City in Monday.
Police identified the hostage-taker as Archie Paray, 41 while the injured security guard, identified as Ronald Velita, was brought to Cardinal Santos Medical Center.
Paray surrendered at 8:15 p.m. after almost 10-hours of keeping his captives.
He accused several security officers of the mall of corruption.
He said security officers are receiving bribe money from mall tenants or stall owners.
“May corruption dito sa Greenhills… matindi. Lahat naman dito tumatanggap, sila mismo tumatanggap,” Paray lamented.
He was brought to San Juan Police Station.
Paray was reportedly dismissed from his work when he went absent without leave.
During the course of the negotiation, the hostage-taker demanded to go on Facebook live to make sure that all media networks are covering the hostage drama.
Around 6 p.m. six security guards of the mall, through the media, apologized to Paray and explained that what happened was nothing personal and an “operational issue”.
Paray went back to his work on Monday but he was not allowed by Verita. He got mad and shot Verita and the incident later resulted in the hostage-taking around 11:22 a.m. at the second floor of administration building of the shopping center.
The mall was put on lockdown as the police was dispatched in the area.
Mayor Francis Zamora said that Paray felt bad after his colleagues ignored him when he asked them to join them.
The suspect also demanded to talk to his fellow security guards and the media.
Police said Paray was armed with a firearm and four grenades.
National Capital Regional Police Office Director Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, Eastern Police District Director Brig. Gen. Johnson Almazan and San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora went immediately to the area to personally handle the situation.
A crisis management team, through a video call, had been activated to lead the negotiation with the hostage-taker.
STATEMENT FROM GREENHILLS CENTER MANAGEMENT
The hostage-taking situation at Greenhills Mall perpetrated by a former security guard of a security agency has been resolved with the help of San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora and the Philippine National Police.
The armed hostage taker on Monday morning forced himself into the shopping mall, shooting one of the security guards before capturing at gunpoint employees of Greenhills Mall. The injured guard was rushed to a nearby hospital and is now in stable condition.
The other hostages are now safe in police custody and are being debriefed. All the necessary assistance are being extended to them.
Management continues to cooperate with authorities and will have a post-incident assessment with the police to avoid a repeat of this unfortunate situation.
Management will also look into allegations made by the hostage taker against security agency officials who allegedly take bribes from tenants to disregard shopping mall policies.
To tenants and loyal patrons of Greenhills Mall, please bear with us as Management moves deliberately towards the resumption of normal shopping mall operations.
Management will share more information as we get them. We ask the public to avoid sharing online unconfirmed information and refer to authorities.