Rolando Mendoza, a disgraced former Filipino Senior Inspector, shocked his native Philippines as well as Hong Kong by hijacking a traveling bus with more than 20 tourists from the Chinese SAR on the morning of August 22. Rolando Mendoza’s 11-hour hostage taking drama completed in a bloody end at night after the 55-year-old fired his MK-16 automatic rifle and shot 8 dead and injured 7, and of course Mendoza himself was eventually killed by the police squad. It must be said, the whole hostage-rescuing process displayed the incompetence of Filipino National Police.
As the combo picture above showing Rolando Mendoza standing at the gate of abducted bus , to my very own viewpoint, Filipino police missed a golden opportunity to paralyze him.
Ok, never mind, maybe at the time, the police is hoping Mendoza to peacefully release the hostage, but apparently they miscalculated, or at least one of their negotiators did not help out first! From Gulf News
On Monday, Marge Enriquez, a female reporter from the Inquirer, Erwin Tulfo, a radio anchor and two police officers negotiated with Mendoza for the safe release of the hostages.
Initially, media members had been barred from getting near the tourist bus, but Mendoza had asked for a reporter as a negotiator.
Despite heavy rain, members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) surrounded the tourist bus while the negotiations took place. Mendoza was said to be courteous at first.
However, he became angry when radio journalist Raffy Tulfo criticised the police force for their soft treatment of him in the past.
I’m not a negotiating expert, yet I do know when having negotiations with the person like Rolando Mendoza, it’s absolutely a bad idea for negotiators to usher in any words to infuriate him.
When the night fell, it’s understandable the Filipino police wanted to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, it seemed they again made mistakes. From Inquirer
Bursts of gunfire were heard from inside the tourist bus as lawmen have gone to the backdoor to force it open in the hope of seizing Mendoza and rescuing his hostages, footage on GMA Network showed.
I don’t know at what point the Filipno police was propelled to use the sledgehammer in an intention to broke the windows glass of tourists bus.
If Rolando Mendoza had fired shots to tourists, what the police did might be reasonable because they desperately hunt him down if not to kill. But it’s so ridiculous they couldn’t find any way even after making five attempts. From Sky
….when police tried to get on board, around 30 shots were heard and local radio reported Mendoza screaming “all the hostages are dead”.
The officers lost valuable time trying to smash their way inside the bus with sledge hammers.
Foreign Affairs editor Tim Marshall said: “The operation is pretty unimpressive, to be hitting it with a sledgehammer without a ladder does not seem to be the best way to get into the bus.
“They have tried in five places now to get in and they have failed on each occasion and that means they haven’t got the proper kit.
“If they had used a charge they would have been on board a long time ago.
“It is not what you expect to see from a trained SWAT team.”
The red-circled windows glass was smashed at least 8 times but it just couldn’t be broken away. It’s not difficult to image when the police was so desperate to board the vehicle Mendoza wouldn’t become more insane by taking revenges against Hong Kong tourists.
Two comments left under the quoted Sky news above should reflected the common sentiment toward the Filipino police who participated the rescuing of Rolando Mendoza’s hostage.
“I just can’t get over how amateurish the police team were. Truly shocking that all those people have died as a direct result of police incompetence.” JamesTTruth fretted.
“Watching this as a Filipino in London, I’m embarrassed at how pathetic the police are at dealing with the situation. Trying to break into 5 different areas in the bus and still cannot get in. Lack of equipment is due to the corrupt government the country has . Tim Marshall on sky news is absolutely slamming the police, and so he should.” Chickdem added.
Before ending the post, the last image is a picture of a Filipino sniper hiding at a nearby construction site bared his upper body when aiming his gun toward Rolando Mendoza’s abducted bus. This is the first sight in my memory that a country’s SWAT is not in a uniform when on duty from a dangerous criminal scene.
Click here for a few more details demonstrating the incompetence the Manila police during this tragedy.
(Images: from Internet)
Tulfo, agree with you. But the un-professionalism of those SWATs should also be blamed. For sure, they should learn much more from the following video found on Youtube
According to the inquiries, Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim had a hand in aggravating the situation. He ordered the presence of SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza (the hostage taker’s brother) to be in the scene and let him be in to negotiate the release of the hostages. In my opinion, you cannot put in any friends or relatives that may badly influence the negotiations at hand.
Later on, Mayor Lim ordered the arrest of SPO2 Mendoza for no apparent reason, all being broadcasted and being watched by the hostage taker LIVE that may have aggravated the hostage-taker.
The media, on the other hand, should also be blamed. The hostage-taker was watching live everything that’s happening from outside the bus. He’s watching the SWAT’s every move from the inside, therefore anticipating their actions.