MANILA, 8 November 2003 — Police recaptured the Manila airport control tower after an intense gunbattle with armed men who seized the building in the Philippine capital early today, officials and radio reports said.
“It’s over. Operations are back to normal,” general manager of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Edgar Manda, said over DZRH radio.
Police had swooped after “suspicious-looking characters were seen inside the tower”, he said without elaborating.
Airport security chief Angel Atotubo said police shot dead two armed men during the gunbattle. Manila radio stations said the man who had taken over the control tower, former aviation regulator Panfilo Villaruel, was among the dead. Radio stations reporting from the scene said emergency workers took three stretchers up the tower following the short, but intense, gunbattle.
Radio reports said up to 15 armed men led by Villaruel had seized the tower shortly after midnight. The tower is situated near a passenger terminal.
Villaruel, a former pilot and air force officer, entered the tower with the armed men and told employees to leave, an Air Transport Office (ATO) official and a senior security official at the airport told Reuters.
“We are being killed here,” Villaruel said on live radio as shots and groans could be heard in the background. “We surrender.”
Villaruel earlier told local radio he was fed up with corruption in the government and that he was representing Filipinos who were scared to speak up. He said he had 12 armed men with him.
Villaruel told the radio station that he and his companions had planted bombs around the airport. “Please evacuate the civilians,” he said. “We are not terrorists. It is just time for Filipinos to take action.”
