POLICE are looking into a claim that the slain hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza went to Fort Santiago Monday morning using a car that was later driven away by his female companion, an official said Wednesday.
“I will have it investigated,” Metro Manila Police chief Leocadio Santiago Jr. said after a witness said he saw Mendoza taking an M-16 rifle from the back compartment of a Toyota Vios before boarding a bus marked Hong Thai Travel.
Lawyer Jose Adolfo Cruz, a labor relations officer, said he was in his office across the entrance of Fort Santiago when he saw a car stop near the tourist bus.
He said that after the driver in a “battle-dress attire” got inside the bus, a “middle-aged” woman in the front passenger seat took the wheel and drove away.
Feeling something was amiss, Cruz called the attention of a Marine security detail who was posted in the vicinity of Palacio del Gobernador, where the Commission on Elections head office is located.
“When challenged, the man told the Marine officer that he was cop assigned to escort the tourists,” Cruz said.
“I was later told by the Marine officer that the man had shouted at the bus driver to close the door and proceed to their destination.”
Cruz said that it was only through the radio that he learned about the hostage-taking by what turned out to be a dismissed police officer.
National Police Highway Patrol Group chief Leonardo Espina said they were tracing the ownership and whereabouts of the Vios.
Mendoza’s relatives said he left his home in Tanauan City, Batangas, early Monday morning, saying he would be turning over the firearms that had been issued to him.
Bus driver Alberto Lubang said they were about to leave Fort Santiago when the armed suspect in a blue police T-shirt and camouflage green pants came aboard and ordered him to proceed to the Luneta Grandstand.
Lubang was seen on television fleeing from the bus, saying he was able to pick the lock of his handcuffs with a nail cutter.
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