Manila Doctors Hospital
Advisory on Hostage Taking and
Kidnapping Situations
- When Hostage Taking is discovered, notify immediately
the Hospital Director, Disaster Control Officer or Chief Security Officer
for proper disposition.
- Promptly identify when and where the crisis is
happening, present situation, how many persons are involved and the type
of arms they have or used. (These are the primary information
needed by the local police before responding to the emergency call for
assistance)
- The Hospital Director, Disaster Control Officer or
the Chief Security Officer shall quickly activate
the Disaster Response Team by announcing code Tango of the Security Team thru
the Communication Team of the information desk.
- The Cordon Team shall quickly seal the scene of the
crime and keep people at least 50 meters away except for those involved in
the negotiation and rescue operation.
- All available guards along with the Rescue-Evacuation
Team should be posted at the possible exit routes to prevent the escape of
hostage taker/kidnapper. Office
doors, clinics, and patient’s room near the scene of the crime should be
closed or requested to be closed by the Communication Team until the
crisis is declared under control.
- The most senior Management of MDH shall assume the
job of a hostage negotiator until the crisis response team of the Western Police
District (WPD) is dispatched to take over the negotiation.
- The security guards shall not engage or try to attempt
shooting on the suspect without any order from the Management especially
when the life of the victim and innocent person is directly
threatened.
- When the crisis response team of the WPD arrives, the
Security and Rescue-Evacuation Teams shall remain in their positions and
serve as back up of the police.
- The First-aid Team and clinical staff shall be
alerted of what is going on. The
nurse on duty shall be ready to respond to injured persons and coordinate
for their treatment.
- Make sure that a stretcher and wheelchairs are
present in case of rescue-evacuation operation and it should be situated
to an unobstructed area. Elevator
should also be on standby and available during the negotiation for
emergency reason.
- The Communication Team shall be alerted and be
prepared to make calls with the local police and hospital doctors for
reinforcement purposes.
- The security office, like in other emergency
situations, shall be designated as the Central Monitoring Station or
Command Post where direct lines and communication system are available to
get in touch with the negotiating team.
- Do not discuss the incident to anybody instead
maintain news black out particularly to the media and other personalities. All inquiries about the incident should
be referred to the Public Relations Officer.
References:
1. Handbook on CSP Review Program
2.
Hand-out on Negotiations
3.
Hand-out on Terrorism, Anti-Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
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INTER OFFICE MEMO
REF
NO.: DPC-05- 020
Date: May 11, 2005
TO: All SMT Members and Heads of
Divisions, Departments, Services and Committees
FR: Disaster Preparedness Committee
RE: Advisory
on Hostage Taking and Kidnapping Situations
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hostage
taking and kidnapping is a scare tactics being employed by terrorists to
initiate fear among the populace.
The
word terror comes from the Latin word “terrere”
meaning “to frighten”. Terrorists intend
to instill fear into the population at large.
Terrorism is the calculated use of violence as fear, intimidation or
coercion, or the threat of such violence to attain goals that are political,
religious and ideological in nature. It
is a criminal act that is often symbolic in nature and intended to influence an
audience beyond the immediate victims.
Hostage
taking occurs when a criminal being chased is cornered and could not escape and
will use his victim as human shield, jilted or jealous lover of somebody
exacting vengeance, or the suspect is psychologically imbalanced or obsessed.
Hostage
taking further occurs during kidnapping situations after demands for the safe
release of the victim have not met. Kidnapping, a classic act of terrorism, has
been classified into two (2) general categories, political and criminal.
In
political kidnapping, suspects normally do not harm their victims because they
are aiming for a greater propaganda impact in the release of kidnapped
individual. Unintentional harm sometimes
occurs due to an accident when victim himself resisted. On the other hand, criminal kidnapping is
usually motivated by personal gain and so will be involved in the more
traditional form of abduction, the kidnap for ransom.
Whatever
situation happens in the hospital, attached is the advisory on Hostage Taking
and Kidnapping that can be used by concerned teams of
the Disaster Preparedness Committee.
For information and guidance.
GERARDO
A RAMOS, CSP
Chief
Security Officer/Security Team
DANIEL
DE LA PAZ, JR., MD
Disaster
Control Officer
REYNALDO
O. JOSON, MD, MHA, MHPEd, MS Surg
Chairperson,
Disaster Preparedness Committee
Noted
by:
REX
M. MENDOZA, MD
OIC
and Administrative Director