Man slain in marital hostage drama

CAGAYAN DE ORO (AFP) — Police shot dead a distraught man after he took a Catholic priest hostage in a convent in the southern Philippines yesterday in an effort to force his estranged wife to return to him, police said.

Chief Inspector Antonio Montalva said police stormed the convent where Anton Lerios was holding Rev. Raymar Dagup hostage after hours of negotiations failed to convince Lerios to surrender.

"We have exhausted all peaceful means and we had to send in our assault team," he said after Lerios suffered two fatal gunshot wounds in the chest.

Lerios burst into the convent of the Holy Cross Church in Cagayan de Oro city early Saturday, fired off a shot from his .38 caliber revolver and seized Dagup, local officials and eyewitnesses said.

Lerios told negotiators that he wanted his wife, the priest’s secretary, to talk to him but the woman had left him and was in the central island of Cebu.

District chief Justiniano Bacan, one of the negotiators, said that Lerios was depressed that his wife had left him and blamed the priest.