Hostaged mother: We are afraid

MANILA, Philippines - The bus driver pleaded for his life and was spared.

The foreign tourists feared for their lives but hostage taker Rolando Mendoza showed no mercy.

“We are OK. We are afraid,” a 44-year-old woman who identified herself as Yang Li Wah told Radio Mindanao Network reporter Erwin Tulfo before Mendoza went on his shooting rampage.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who chairs the incident investigation and review committee (IIRC) conducting a probe of the incident, said the woman, who was with her two children in the bus, was among those killed.

Bus driver Alberto Lubang was just as terrified but luckier. As shots rang out from the hijacked bus, Lubang could be heard on the taped interview screaming, “Sir, parang awa nyo na sir (Have pity).”

He told the IIRC that Mendoza replied, “Bahala ka na (It’s up to you).”

De Lima noted the radio interviews with Mendoza and some of the hostages had been so detailed that also prompted some of the panel members to question why the media did not help seek the release of the hostages.

Teresita Ang-See, who represents the Chinese-Filipino community in the investigation, said none of the RMN anchors asked Mendoza to release the hostages he still had inside the bus when they started interviewing him before 6 p.m.

Mendoza was already being interviewed on-air by RMN anchors Michael Rogas and reporter Tulfo.

Rogas said he interviewed Mendoza eight hours after the hostage drama started to find out the situation of the hostages inside the hijacked tour bus.

Ang-See, however, asked Rogas why he failed to ask Mendoza to release his hostages.

“Didn’t you even make an appeal to Mendoza to release the hostages at that time?” she asked.

Rogas replied that their role was only to allow people to know what was happening.

“We are not negotiators to make an appeal,” he told the panel.

He claimed to have tried several times to calm Mendoza but to no avail.

Ang-See said she was unconvinced since no one from the radio station who interviewed Mendoza appealed for the hostages’ lives.

RMN station manager Jake Maderazo said they were not aiming for a scoop when they interviewed Mendoza.

He said the story had “journalistic relevance” since Mendoza did not ask for ransom and had taken foreigners as hostages.

Ang-See, however, responded: “Your profession should never be more important than human lives, than covering what was happening inside.”