The Philippine National Police (PNP) said the three detainees sought to escape from the Custodial Center and not to take former Senator Leila De Lima as hostage.

"' It is not likely that they want to take Senator De Lima hostage. It just happened that she was there. They saw she would be a good cover. They really want to escape,'' said PNP chief General Rodolfo Azurin Jr in an interview at dzBB.

Azurin said the incident, which began at 6:30 am, was over in ''a little over 30 minutes or so''.

Azurin defended the police's decision to shoot the three. ''They hostaged Senator De Lima. Will you let that situation continue? Of course, this is a critical situation so I think the decision point there rests on the commander,'' he said.

Azurin said Corporal Roger Agustin, the duty policeman is in critical condition. ''We hope he recovers. He is one of our good officers in the PNP,'' he said.

The PNP chief said he ordered the Camp Crame commander to check belongings of persons entering the Custodial Center after discovering that the knives of the three were improvised.

'' We should not give any room or chance for prisoners to improvise (weapons... They tried to kill our PNP personnel in their attempt to escape,'' he said. DMS