The blame game

As usual, the blame game is on with a lot of finger pointing on who is responsible for the bloody end to the hostage crisis last Monday. There are all kinds of speculations floating about what could have triggered dismissed Police Inspector Rolando Mendoza to go on a rampage and start shooting the hostages. Some point to the brother, SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza as the agitator, goading Mendoza not to surrender unless they give in to his demands, hysterically shouting that police are threatening to arrest and kill him for being a conspirator. But authorities particularly the PNP are blaming the media, saying their blow-by-blow accounts of the action telegraphed police movements. Maybe to a certain extent, media could be held responsible. It didn’t help that you had this high-pitched lady TV anchor hysterically shouting and asking the TV reporter on the scene what was happening when she saw the police van moving in – which could have agitated the hostage taker some more. But the police have no one to blame except themselves for the clumsy and incompetent (mis)handling of the crisis. Quite obviously Mendoza was enraged by the incident with his brother but the police should have acted in a more circumspect manner.  As a matter of fact, there were TV anchors who handled the coverage impressively like ABC 5’s Cheryl Cosim who showed cool composure, asking intelligent questions from resource persons and their crew on the ground – pretty much the same way CNN or BBC would cover similar crisis situations. But pictures don’t lie, or in this case, the television cameras didn’t lie – with the situation starting to deteriorate as the clock ticked and it became more apparent that the police was not in control. If the TV cameras were not around we would never have known how no one was in control – certainly not the ground commander who should have kept all the “uzis” or kibitzers far away from the area to prevent the ensuing chaos and disorganization.

A disaster in the making

It was pathetic and infuriating to see the police act with utter cluelessness, their bungling displayed live on camera for the whole world to see. If not for the lives lost, the entire hostage crisis could have been a hilarious comedy of errors starring bumbling members of the RMG (Regional Mobile Group) and SWAT – with the typical Filipino humor surfacing through text messages circulating ridiculous new meanings of SWAT, like “Sana Wag Ako Tamaan” (I hope I don’t get shot) to describe the way policemen cowered behind each other as they approached the bus. As a Filipino, you feel ashamed watching CNN Paris repeatedly showing this fat cop clumsily fixing his tactical shield and with the other hand weakly attempting to break the bus glass door with a sledgehammer, while still another tried to fix his helmet like he was wearing a wig. What a set up! It was also idiotic to see tear gas thrown inside the bus only to defer the assault because they did not have gas masks and Kevlar vests. One who bravely went through had to scramble back when Mendoza greeted him with a shot. Meanwhile, the hostages could have been suffocating as time dragged on and on and the police kept circling the bus senselessly. Hostage taking is a police matter but you wonder if it would have been better to call in the Army Scout Rangers or Special Forces who could have carried the assault with more precision, competence and professionalism. For all you know maybe even the security guards that Mikey Arroyo represents in Congress could have done a better job.

International embarrassment

With this incident, the image of the police force has gone down to the pits. As Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said, they were caught flatfooted by a hostage taking done by one of their kind. More than ever there is a need to look into the PNP and their performance not only in terms of the lapses but the alleged killings, torture cases and other crimes like the “hulidap” case that caused the dismissal of Mendoza. Many believe Mendoza was guilty and may even be a schizophrenic leading a double life as a good cop-bad cop. The corner of Taft Avenue and Vito Cruz is really notorious as a hunting ground of “kotong” cops victimizing young people. I personally know some of these poor victims who were flagged down for some flimsy traffic violation and framed afterwards for drug possession like what happened to Christian Kalaw. These kotong cops are the worst and most vicious kind of criminals of the highest order. Unfortunately for us Filipinos, the hostage taking was an international incident with international repercussions starting with the black travel advisories from Hong Kong, China and other countries. Potential tourism revenue losses are estimated at $3.5 billion from Hong Kong and China tourists alone. But worse of all, hatred for Filipinos is building up among the Hong Kong Chinese.  Yesterday, a Filipino who disembarked from a Cathay Pacific flight was rudely told by a Hong Kong Immigration officer: “What are you doing here? Go back to your country of murderers.”

 The fear factor

You can’t really blame the Chinese government for expressing disappointment and now fear for the security of their citizens because of the stupid handling of the crisis, accusing the police of incompetence, stupidity and careless disregard for human lives. The fact that the perpetrator was a decorated police officer and later found guilty of extortion makes the hostage taking even more appalling, because it evokes fear among all of us who are beginning to feel the police cannot be trusted ever to protect us from criminals. And if we Filipinos can’t trust these men in uniform, how much more the tourists and members of the international community? 

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