The SWAT team bungled the hostage crisis

There is no doubt that the whole world watched the hostage crisis last Monday at the Quirino Grandstand because it was covered not just on nationwide television, but also by CNN and BBC. This is a black mark on our Tourism Industry because this happened to a bunch of tourists from Hong Kong who only came to Manila for a holiday. But instead, 8 of them died in a blaze of gunfire because of an irate dismissed police officer, Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, once among the top 10 best policemen in the country.

How could a highly-decorated PNP officer all so suddenly go to the opposite direction in his life? He was supposedly charged with extortion, but now that he is dead, we will never get into the bottom of his case. But PNP psychologists should study his case for years in the hope that something like this could be prevented in the future.

This hostage-taking incident also gave us an armchair view of the keystone cop capability of Manila’s Finest, how they mishandled this critical situation and why they could not diffuse it. Earlier, some 9 hostages were already released and sensing that Mendoza was a lone gunman, it would have been easy to end this incident in a more peaceful manner. The authorities should have been extremely concerned that this could end up the way it ended up. But why did the police arrest Mendoza’s brother, SPO2 Gregorio, which could have triggered the hostage taker to its violent end?

Later in the evening, when things started to turn sour, the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) decided to storm the bus. In reality, they merely “drizzled” around the bus because it took them an hour to subdue the hostage taker and kill him. The SWAT did not have ladders or stools as they broke the window of the bus. They didn’t have the capability to force the automatic doors open; they just used sledgehammer to break the door, which just took too much time. Even the officer near the door of the bus didn’t wear any helmet or jacket, just his PNP uniform.

The news outlets said that the SWAT Team “stormed the bus”. If they indeed stormed the bus, then why did it take them more than an hour to enter the bus? The police team that surrounded the bus looked more like riot police complete with shields. They did not even wear the flak or bulletproof jackets that we know that the SWAT teams always wear.

It is more than obvious to us that the SWAT team didn’t have any training to take on the tourist bus, something that they should have a long time ago. If the SWAT had all that equipment, the so-called Assault Team could truly have stormed the tourist bus even if they knew that the hostage taker was armed and considered dangerous. For an assault team, their actions shown on live television looked like it was all in slow-motion.

The media also broke the rules of engagement when the hostage taker’s brother SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza was arrested; it was then that the hostage taker decided to end it all. When the bus driver left the bus, it was the media that surrounded him rather than the police. Seeing CNN, BBC and our local channels, you can see that CNN’s Anna Coren kept her distance from the crime scene while the local media strutted about within the crime scene with impunity. Now there is a debate whether the media also made things worse. I agree with these observations that media should keep their distance.

When the shooting was over, we discovered another grave flaw that the police committed. By not establishing crowd control, bystanders or uzzizeros suddenly crowded the bus disturbing the crime scene. This is just another proof how unprofessional is our PNP. What a shame! Here in Cebu City, at least I had a first hand experience in seeing our SWAT Team. They are well-armed with 9mm M-4s and armored vests, unlike their counterparts in Manila. Just to show how unprofessional the police have become, I saw the policeman with a sledgehammer destroying the signal light of the bus. What was that for? Plain and simple vandalism? Methinks that the police needs more than just proper training; they need to have values.

Now that this incident is over and done with, except for the complete report of how the PNP bungled this incident, the Philippines has now been placed on a Travel Advisory by the Hong Kong government, which we can understand. However it is unfair to us in Cebu, where Cathay Pacific also have direct flights from Hong Kong.

Rather than make this issue a bigger problem, I just hope that Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III would send a high-level delegation to Hong Kong to mend fences on this issue. We shouldn’t allow any tension between us and the Hong Kong government; after all, this is an isolated incident. It was only bad luck that this happened to Hong Kong tourists.