Philippines hopes to move on from hostage crisis

MANILA, Philippines — A Malacañang official said on Thursday that while the Philippines has settled with the Hong Kong government over the 2010 Luneta hostage tragedy, the concerns of the victims and their families are still being addressed.

In a televised press briefing in Malacañang, Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the agreement between the Philippines and Hong Kong to resolve the incident and their strained relations is "the beginning of a new journey."

"What we have now is a moving-on process. As we speak, the Hong Kong government is still interacting with the families who were not present there, letters are being delivered, documents are being turned over, exchanged; and hopefully signatures are being generated so that we can finally bring this to a closure," Almendras said in a televised press briefing in Malacañang.

"I am hopeful, and by all indications, we will be able to reach that," he added.

The Philippines and Hong Kong reached a compromise Wednesday over the latter's demands for an apology for the families of eight tourists killed in a bungled response to the 2010 Manila hostage-taking that soured relations.

Hong Kong lifted the sanctions it imposed on the Philippines after Almendras and former president and now Manila City Mayor Joseph Estrada talked to Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, and some families of the victims.

Almendras said the four issues that were discussed in the meeting were the apology, the token of solidarity to the victims' families, the actions against those who were negligent for the tragedy, and steps to prevent such incident from happening again.

The Cabinet official said there were ups and downs in the nearly seven-month negotiations since some of the terms and conditions demanded were too tough to resolve.

"The real challenge was that there's a lot of emotion and cultural issues relative to a final compromise," Almendras said.

He said the agreements reached and other details were promised to be kept confidential to respect the families of the victims.

"I suggested that we keep everything under wraps until such a time that we have a final solution. Why? Because there was a lot of emotion and sensitivity to families and persons that were going to be involved," the official said.

For one, Almendras did not disclose the exact or estimated amount of the "compensation" that was given to families. But he said the reported P150 million was "inaccurate."

While the Philippines tries to move on, Almendras said they accept that the victims' families will never get over with the tragedy because of the trauma and grief.

"Some families wanted to move on. And moving on is not about being paid or receiving money. Moving on is about accepting certain realities," Almendras said.

"Some of them do not believe that it is appropriate for them to accept money in exchange for this," he also said. "No amount of money could compensate for human life."

The Cabinet official said "dozens" of issues have to be worked out for every family to help them go forward. -with AP