By Manny Mogato
MANILA (Reuters) - Gunmen freed dozens of children and three teachers held hostage for over nine hours in a bus in the Philippine capital on Wednesday and then surrendered without violence.
Scores of onlookers lit candles outside the bus, parked in front of Manila City Hall, just before 7 p.m. (noon British time), the time the hostage-takers had said they would surrender.
A minute after the deadline, the door of the bus opened and children, many carrying school bags and toys, were lifted and handed over to waiting policemen, live television showed.
Onlookers cheered and many said they sympathised with the hostage-takers, one of whom said he wanted to highlight corruption in the Philippines and the lack of educational opportunities for poor children.
One man from within the bus handed over what appeared to be two grenades to a negotiator. He and another man also believed to be a hostage-taker were whisked away in police vehicles.
"Everybody helped in resolving this crisis," said Luis Singson, governor of the province of Ilocos Sur who was drafted in to help negotiate an end to the crisis. "I was a former police chief so I am used to this situation."
Reports during the day said 32 children and two teachers were on the bus when it was seized, but these turned out to be incorrect. Only 26 children and three teachers were on board at the end.
One child who had a fever was freed earlier in the day. Continued...
The head of a day care centre in Manila, Philippines, has boarded a bus containing 32 children and 2 teachers from the centre and is holding them hostage, demanding better education rights and better housing for them.

Jun Ducat and one other armed individual took the party hostage while they were going out on a trip with the day care centre.  

The bus has been surrounded by armed Filipino police, and through negotiation, the hostage takers agreed to release all the remaining children on the bus at 11:00am BST (10:00am GMT), but the deadline for this has now passed with no sign of the remaining children being released as per the agreement.

One child has been released from the bus and taken away by police and emergency medical services suffering from a high fever.

Mr Ducat said that he had no intention of harming the people aboard the bus in any way, and indeed, the siege has ended with his surrender.

"I accept that I should be jailed because what I did was against the law," Ducat said in an interview with ''Associated Press''. No child was reported physically injured, but they are undergoing medical checkups and psychological debriefings.