OPPOSITION lawmakers bludgeoned the administration Wednesday for mishandling the hostage crisis in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed on Monday, and called for three Cabinet secretaries to resign for “palpable incompetence and culpable indifference.”
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman urged Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and Palace communications officials Ricky Carandang and Herminio Coloma to take responsibility for “fatal blunders” during the crisis by resigning.
“Palpable incompetence and culpable indifference must not be condoned,” Lagman said, noting that Robredo had authority over the police who bungled the negotiations.
“Neither a postmortem of the tragic hostage-taking fiasco nor a contrite presidential apology will be enough if the heads of high ranking responsible officials are spared,” Lagman said.
Carandang and Coloma, he said, failed to stop the media from broadcasting live images during the crisis, which allowed the hostage taker to monitor police movements through a television on the bus.
None of the Cabinet members had responded to the crisis, which dragged on for 11 hours.
“If Robredo, Carandang and Coloma do not resign voluntarily, President Benigno Aquino III should fire them from the Cabinet,” Lagman said.
Former broadcast journalist and now Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones, a member of the majority bloc and a presidential ally, agreed.
“I join the minority in calling for their resignation,” he said. He noted that neither Carandang nor Coloma had asked media to refrain from airing sensitive information at the height of the hostage crisis.
In the aftermath of Monday’s bloodbath, the President’s Facebook page became the target of so much anger and outrage that Carandang and Coloma shut down the section for comments.
Robredo said in a radio interview that while he had command responsibility over the police, he would not resign because it was Manila Police District Director Chief Supt. Rolando Magtibay who had called the shots.
Other lawmakers focused their criticism on the police.
“Heads must roll,” Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said, adding that the police must take full responsibility for the hostage fiasco.
Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan urged the President to act decisively to avert any fallout that could endanger the Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong.
“More than the acknowledgment of failure and beyond sending a top-level delegation to appease the people of Hong Kong, heads should roll,” she said.
The Senate set a public hearing on the hostage fiasco for today, Thursday.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said neither National Police chief Jesus Verzosa nor any senior Cabinet members were at the scene Monday.
“Why was PNP chief Verzosa not there? He should explain where he was at that time,” Enrile said.
His view was echoed by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who rejected suggestions that a news blackout be imposed during such incidents.
“All you have to do is put a cordon,” he said.
“You can tell the media to stay at a distance and not interfere with the operational aspects of the event.”
The government on Wednesday created an inter-agency committee to look into the bloody hostage drama and determine what lapses led to its tragic end.
Undersecretary Jose Vicente Suarez, who was designated officer in charge at the Justice Department while Secretary Leila de Lima is recuperating from pneumonia, said the panel would focus on the logistical, operational and administrative problems that led to the bloody end of the hostage-taking at the Luneta in Manila.
“There will be dual objectives,” he said.
“The first one would be to determine [what really happened] during the incident and examine the institutional problems which might have contributed to the incident.”
The panel would have representatives from the Justice Department, the Interior Department, the National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation. With Fel V. Maragay, Rey E. Requejo
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