Manila Police to blame for deaths

Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. on Thursday said that police may have caused the bloody ending to a hostage crisis on Monday in Manila.

During a Senate hearing on the hostage-taking that played out at Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s Rizal Park (Luneta), Revilla noted that the arrest of Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza by fellow policemen agitated the hostage-taker into killing eight of mostly Chinese captives.

Gregorio is the younger brother of hostage-taker and former Police Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza, who was said to have been killed by a police sniper toward the end of the incident seen live on television worldwide.

“Isa lang nag-trigger niyan . . . yung order ng pagkaka-aresto ng kapatid niya [Gregorio] [Only one factor triggered the violent ending . . . it was the order to arrest the brother of Gregorio],” Revilla told police officials during the first hearing on the hostage crisis.

He and other senators grilled government and police officials on the 12-hour hostage drama that later led to bitter words from Hong Kong, hometown of the slain Chinese and their 14 compatriots who survived the incident.

Three Filipino captives were also found alive inside the bus that had carried them and the foreigners from Fort Santiago to Rizal Park.

But Sen. Jose Miguel Zubiri said that President Benigno Aquino 3rd was not to blame for the deaths.

President Aquino “should only be ready for responses to foreign governments. He should be isolated from this [fallout from a apparently bungled police rescue attempt]. Hindi niya ito gawain [It is not his job to resolve the crisis],” he explained.

Chief Supt. Rodolfo Magtibay, the director of the Manila Police District (MPD) who has gone on leave because of the apparent fiasco, told the senators that it was Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila who had ordered the arrest of Mendoza’s brother after it was discovered that Gregorio “conspired” with the hostage-taker.

Magtibay said that they had received information from Supt. Orlando Yebra, the chief negotiator in the hostage drama, that Gregorio was allegedly interfering with negotiations to end the stand-off with Mendoza.

He added that he was with Lim when the mayor gave an order to “escort [Gregorio] Mendoza to the general assignments section.”

Lim, however, denied ordering the arrest, saying that he even decided not to be visible during the negotiations because he was the one who had ordered Mendoza’s dismissal from the police force.

“[The order] was based on a report from Supt. Yebra that [Gregorio] conspired with [Mendoza] . . . that was the impression [that we got],” Magtibay said.

Gregorio was overheard to have told Mendoza, “Tol, wag ka muna bibigay, hindi pa isinasaoli ang baril ko [Brother, don’t surrender yet because they haven’t returned my gun yet].”

Not a negotiator
Magtibay clarified that Gregorio was not part of the original negotiating team, but that he was allowed to escort Yebra, who was to deliver a letter from the Office of the Ombudsman to Mendoza.

The letter carried the Ombudsman’s promise to personally review Mendoza’s case.

The slain hostage-taker was dismissed in 2009 on extortion charges and stripped of his retirement benefits.

But the disgruntled former police officer, who was demanding to be reinstated to the police service, “threw the letter as garbage,” reports said.

By night time of Monday, Magtibay, who was the ground commander during the hostage crisis, said that he had ordered MPD’s assault team “to save the remaining hostages who might still be alive” after Mendoza fired several shots inside the tourist bus.

Lim reacts
From Manila City Hall, Lim also on Thursday said that Magtibay apparently had been rattled before the Senate hearing because he told reporters during the hostage crisis that it was he who ordered the arrest of Gregorio.

Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Dumagoso of Manila also told the media that Gregorio was very calm when the police escorts told him to come with them.

But, Dumagoso said, Gregorio ran to where the reporters covering the hostage crisis converged and made a scene there.

“This scene created by SPO2 Gregorio which was caught on television was the one that triggered the hostage-taker to become violent, not the arrest” the vice mayor added.

Also on Thursday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) began carrying out ballistic tests to determine if the policemen who took part in the assault to rescue the hostages fired any of the bullets that killed the eight Hong Kong tourists.

“We are examining the firearms used in the assault, including the 200 firearms used by the assault team,” PNP Spokesman and Senior Supt. Agrimero Cruz told Agence France-Presse.

Cruz said that the M-16 rifle and .45 automatic pistol used by Mendoza were also being tested.

The hostages were killed as a police team attempted to storm the bus, only to be held at bay for about an hour, as Mendoza fired at them, using some of his captives as human shields.

The apparently ill-prepared police team eventually made their way into the bus and shot Mendoza dead.

President Aquino and the police have admitted that many mistakes were made during the hostage crisis, and the four leaders of the assault team were suspended on Wednesday.

Cruz said that the PNP would give regular updates on results of its investigation.

Media role
Also on Thursday, ABS-CBN said that they would have supported a news blackout during the hostage crisis if authorities called for it.

Media have been getting part of the blame for the bloody ending to Monday’s hostage crisis because the hostage-taker was able to monitor movements of police through television.

In a statement, ABS-CBN said that their team that covered the hostage drama practiced “self-restraint.”

“No. 1, we refused to air the hostage-taker’s threats live at 3 p.m. deadline to avoid fueling public fear.
No. 2, we refused to air the hostage-taker’s interview until after negotiations were finished. No. 3, we refused to be part of hostage negotiations,” the network added.

ABS-CBN said that they kept their cameras 400 meters away from the bus and that their team never crossed the police line.

“Although we had access to members of the police reaction team, we held back interviews which could compromise their plans and/or location,” the network added.

ABS-CBN said that when Gregorio was being arrested by police, their team “physically stepped back to comply with police request.”

“After the assault began, we tried to limit our shots to avoid showing police movements. We stayed with extreme close-ups or wide shots,” the network added.

ABS-CBN called on the media to put into place measures “to collectively decide when we stop live coverage in the absence of government presence of mind.”

Anger high in Hong Kong after Philippine bus hijacking

The bodies of eight tourists arrive home as the city continues to mourn. Residents are urged not to blame Filipinos living in Hong Kong.

The bodies of eight Hong Kong tourists killed in a bus hijacking siege in the Philippines were returned home Wednesday on a government-chartered flight as the city of 7 million pulsated with anger and frustration.

Henry Tang, Hong Kong's chief secretary for administration, placed white wreaths on the caskets as bagpipers played. Several survivors of Monday's hostage drama and family members of the slain victims were also on the plane home. One seriously injured teenager remained in a Manila hospital, and a female gunshot victim was to be transported home on a separate medical flight.

Autopsy: Most victims shot in the neck, head

MOST of the victims who died in the botched hostage rescue attempt Monday were shot in the neck and head, an official said Wednesday.

“Five were Hong Kong nationals and three were Canadian citizens—four females and four males,” National Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz Jr. said.

“The Canadians were two females and one male,” he said during Wednesday’s press briefing to discuss the details of the autopsy on the victims.

The dead included hostage taker and dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza.

Cruz said the victims took bullets from “high-powered firearms” that still must be sorted out.

“We’re still determining what type of caliber [from retrieved] metal fragments,” he said.

“Many were hit in the head and the neck,” he said, rejecting media reports that a victim was slashed in the neck.

Cruz said Mendoza himself had eight gunshot wounds.

“Two were in his neck and one in his head, the fatal one,” he said.

The bullets that hit Mendoza were mostly from the Special Weapons and Tactics team of the Manila Police District.

“The fragments are still being examined. From all indications, snipers’ bullets killed Mendoza,” Cruz said.

He said three of the victims were not autopsied at the request of family members, but the complete report would include the bullet trajectories.

Hostage-taker’s companion sought

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.

Jackie Chan helps tone down anger

ASIAN action superstar Jackie Chan on Wednesday assured Filipinos Hong Kong would not retaliate following Monday’s tour bus hijacking that resulted in the death of eight of its residents.

“[Hong Kong] is a nation built by a lot of different people,” Chan said in his Twitter account.

“Don’t worry! We do not hate!

“This kind of thing always happens around the world. It happens to [Hong Kong] people. The whole [Hong Kong] is talking about it. It’s really sad.

“If they killed the guy sooner, they will say why not negotiate first? If they negotiate first, they ask why not kill the guy sooner? So sad.”

Chan made his assurance after the Philippines appealed to Hong Kong people to refrain from taking out their anger on Filipinos following the incident.

The Philippine government recognized the “backlash” caused by the deadly siege and was “doing everything” it could to contain it, Edwin Lacierda, a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino III, said Wednesday.

The government might start an investigation this week into the country’s deadliest attack on foreign tourists, he said.

The comments came after photos were posted on a Hong Kong government tribute page on the Facebook Inc. networking Web site that included police officers posing in front of the bus.

The captions on some photos contained derogatory language. Thousands of Filipinos live and work in Hong Kong, many as domestics.

“Our Facebook page is intended to allow members of the community to extend their condolences to the victims and their families,” Andy Ho, a spokesman for Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, said in an e-mail.

Ho said that while Facebook postings could not be screened in advance, the government had “been removing offensive materials as they are identified.”

A former police officer took 25 people hostage on the tourist bus Aug. 23 to protest his dismissal from the force and demand his reinstatement.

Eight members of a Hong Kong tour group died in the rescue attempt.

The 12-hour standoff and its bloody ending were broadcast live on television, with footage relayed around the world. The assault team had “inadequate” skills and failed to control the crowd or media, according to a Philippine police review.

Opposition seeks sacking of Robredo, others over botched operation

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

Manila Thriller Over: 8 hostages dead, gunman Mendoza killed in Philippines bus storm

MANILA, Philippines – It looked like a hostage rescue in slow motion: Police creeping up on the bus with sledgehammers and smashing first one window, then another, then trying and failing to rip open the door.
When they finally got inside, authorities said, they found nine bodies: eight Hong Kong tourists and the ex-policeman who had seized the bus to demand his job back.
The bloody denouement to the 12-hour drama in the heart of the Philippine capital, witnessed live on TV, rattled a country already accustomed to kidnappings and violence blamed on Muslim rebels. It provoked demands from the Hong Kong government for an explanation, and an acknowledgment from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III that his police need more training and equipment.
It was 10:15 a.m. Monday in Manila when Rolando Mendoza, 55 and married with three children, hitched a ride with the tourists as they visited historic sites in the city. He wore a camouflage uniform and carried an M16 rifle but didn't seem unusual in the heavily policed capital.
Then he announced that he was taking the travelers hostage to win back his job.
According to newspaper reports, the former senior inspector was among five officers who had been charged with robbery, extortion and grave threats after a Manila hotel chef filed a complaint alleging they falsely accused him of using drugs to extort money. Mendoza was fired last year but claimed he was innocent.
With the bus parked on a Manila park parade ground, Mendoza stuck leaflets on windows, handwritten in English, saying "big mistake to correct a big wrong decision," demanding media attention and threatening "big deal will start after 3 p.m. today."
At first, matters proceeded peacefully. The hijacker freed nine hostages — three women, three children and two men — leaving 15 tourists on board. Police sealed the area and brought food for the hostages, along with fuel to keep the bus' air conditioning running in the 32-degree-Celsius (90 F) heat.
Then negotiations began to go awry. Mendoza demanded a signed promise that his case would be reviewed, but its delivery was delayed for hours, in part by Manila's notorious traffic, and when it finally arrived he rejected it as insufficient.
The hijacker's brother Gregorio, a policeman, was flown in to talk to him through the driver's window but grew so agitated in claiming Mendoza had been unfairly sacked that police hustled him away, fearing he would inflame the situation.
That apparently angered Mendoza into firing a warning shot. Police made an initial attempt to board the bus, and the hijacker shot and wounded a police sharpshooter, said Nelson Yabut, head of the assault team. Single shots, then a burst of automatic fire, echoed through the night.
The Filipino bus driver managed to escape and, according to police officer Roderick Mariano, reported that Mendoza had fired at the tourists.
A freed hostage who gave only her surname, Ng, told Hong Kong reporters that she saw her husband killed by Mendoza after he tried to take him on.
"He was very brave. He rushed forward from the back of the bus. He wanted to prevent the gunman from killing people. He sacrificed himself," she said.
Yabut, the assault commander, said that "when he started shooting the hostages, that's the time I gave the signal to my sniper to shoot when there is a clear view." He said Mendoza died of a single shot to the head.
Shortly before 9 p.m., police lobbed tear gas into the bus and commandos approached the vehicle, crouching beside it and ready to storm it. They smashed windows and the back door with sledgehammers. Once aside, they found only the dead, one of them slumped on the bus steps.





The Hong Kong government did not hide its displeasure at the handling of the incident. It issued a warning against travel to the Philippines, canceled planned tour groups to the islands and asked Hong Kong tourists still in the country to leave.
The bloodbath happened in front of a grandstand where Aquino had been sworn in as president on June 30. After midnight he was back there, staring at the bloodstained, bullet-riddled bus