Hostage case: P-Noy should swat the SWAT!

The whole nation and the world watched in horror as a tourist bus run by the Hong Thai Travel agency was taken hostage by former Senior Police Inspector Rolando Mendoza early Monday morning in Ft. Santiago and moved to the Quirino Grandstand. This crisis ended 11 hours later in the evening when the Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) assaulted the tourist bus and killed the hostage taker. I was watching all this from the SkyCable local channels, including CNN and BBC that gave a very thorough coverage of this embarrassing incident that undoubtedly would result in a severe drop in our country’s tourism industry.

In the afternoon, nine out of the 26 hostages were freed during negotiations, but the situation deteriorated and after the dust settled we saw at least seven hostages walked out of the battered bus unharmed or wounded and four dead bodies were brought out of the bus, including the hostage taker. This incident also included a civilian bystander who was wounded by a stray bullet. All told, 8 tourist hostages were killed.

What a lot of observers found very embarrassing was that the PNP SWAT team was woefully ill-trained and poorly equipped. I heard from news reports that a few hours earlier, the PNP practiced storming a bus somewhere near the crime scene. But it still took the SWAT team more than an hour to occupy the bus, which tells us that the SWAT team didn’t learn anything from their practice session. They didn’t even have ladders or stools!

In reality, the SWAT team looked more like a Riot Police rather than SWAT. To think that they come from Manila’s Finest! If you ask me, the SWAT Team in Cebu City has better equipment and machine pistols than what we saw on TV. Surely the Manila SWAT Team should have been trained in hostage taking scenarios, especially using a tourist bus. When the PNP surrounded the bus, a lot of these officers did not even wear flak-jackets or bulletproof vests. One PNP officer who was barking orders did not even wear a protective helmet and he was just beside the bus!

Watching the whole scenario unfolding was like watching foreign anti-terrorist units assaulting a bus, but in slow motion! It was like watching a 1920’s black and white Keystone cop movie! How frustrating and how embarrassing that all this was being watched not just by Filipinos here at home, but also abroad. We can’t blame the foreigners who would cancel their plans to visit the Philippines because even the police here cannot be trusted! My, even the most wanted fugitive in this country was also a former Chief of Police and later a Senator, Panfilo “Ping” Lacson!

What is even deeply upsetting is that this criminal act was not perpetrated by a known criminal or a terrorist group, but rather it was done by a dismissed senior police officer who was once upon a time one of the top ten police officers of the country, until he was charged for extortion and dismissed from service! Is this the kind of PNP officers we have?

What PNP failed miserably to do is secure the crime scene with a police cordon. In fact, the local media, which had a spat with the PNP during the Manila Peninsula incident a few years back, were seen very close to the tourist bus. Watching the CNN coverage, their reporter Anna Coren clearly stayed far from the crime scene. But as the hostage crisis ended, the numerous bystanders, a.k.a. uzizeros from nowhere, instantly crowded around the bus . . . something that the PNP could not even control!

I don’t blame the Hong Kong government that immediately issued a travel warning to the Philippines in response to this incident. But this should trigger a full-blown PR job for Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim. After all, there is no anti-Hong Kong sentiment in this country. I submit that this is an isolated incident, however just the same, it will affect our tourism industry, hence we must fast track our efforts to undo this travel advisory.

Hours later, Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III held a midnight presscon and P-Noy appeared cool and composed and when prodded on whether heads would roll because of the way the operation was bungled, he refrained from making comments in order to be fair to the investigating body who will look into this case. I also agree with P-Noy that we do not need to apologize to the Hong Kong government because of this incident.

Early yesterday morning, I was listening over the radio to various comments, not just by radio commentators, but also their callers condemning the way that the police handled the hostage situation and the way the SWAT team assaulted the bus. Indeed this situation could have been handled much better . . . after all the dismissed officer could have been a victim of injustice himself . . . thanks to our snail’s paced justice system. But as to the incompetence of the SWAT, people here would like P-Noy to swat the SWAT!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] or vsbobita@ gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.