Quirino Grandstand Manila Hostage Siege, a Failure?

After 11 long hours of hostage siege in Quirino Grandstand, Manila yesterday, it left eight hostages and a gunman dead and four other hostages wounded. I was crying while watching the live hostage drama on GMA7 and  was very much disappointed with the outcome of this day-long ordeal. 

Senior Inspector Rogelio Mendoza, the hostage taking cop, hijacked a bus with Hong Kong tourists on board. He was dismissed from the service after being involved in a torture and extortion. He was in the service for twenty eight years and only two years more before his retirement. He wanted the Ombudsman to reconsider and investigate on his case again. 

On the first hours of negotiation, Senior Inspector Mendoza was cooperating and released several hostages after the police met some of his demands. The negotiations broke down after Mendoza saw his brother being arrested by the police. This triggered him to fire on the tourist hostages. This was according to the bus driver who managed to escape. It took long hours before the police pinned down the suspect and penetrated the bus. Their actions were very disappointing indeed. They kept on throwing flash bangs and tear gases but cannot penetrate the bus because they were not wearing any mask. How sad. I do not want to pre-judge the police but we can clearly see on the videos that they need more trainings on handling situations like this.

The Hong Kong government issued its top-level “black travel alert” for the Philippines. We cannot blame them after all that happened. How sad that this tragedy all rooted from a rotten justice system.