MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Gregorio Honasan said there is a need for “national soul-searching” in the light of the outrage and humiliation that followed last week’s bungled rescue of eight Hong Kong tourists held hostage by a deranged dismissed police officer.
“Let’s check the grievance mechanism not only in the police force but also in other agencies and sectors of the society that might have also been aggrieved. It’s clear that this (problem) is not peculiar to our country. We have to examine this,” Honasan, chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said in Filipino over dzBB radio.
His committee, together with the committee on justice and human rights, is investigating the tragic hostage incident pulled off by dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza.
Honasan said the country should now stop its excessive self-criticism and face the problem squarely.
“We don’t want to admit but we’re afraid of the incident’s backlash – that we might become unpopular, that we might get pelted with tomatoes, that we might find it harder to go abroad. That’s given because we made a mistake and we have to accept it,” he said. “But let’s not stop being humble, being prayerful, or being contrite.”
But he stressed that the country, despite the brickbats that it has received, should keep its pride and not give in to every demand of the Chinese government.
Hearing this week
At the resumption of the Senate hearing this week on the issue, Honasan said the Senate panel would invite Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, negotiator Superintendent Orlando Yebra, some media personalities, as well as top officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police.
Honasan said the Senate wants to know how the local crisis committee works and how it coordinates with other agencies including the Department of Justice, the DILG and the Department of National Defense.
Honasan lamented that Chinese and Hong Kong officials even had to call the attention of the administration to the draping of a Philippine flag on Mendoza’s coffin.
Stop tossing blame
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Vicente Sotto III has called for a stop to the blame tossing among officials.
“It’s the fault of one man not the entire country,” he said.
At the same time, Sotto said authorities should study if it should allow the “take down rule,” which allows security forces to immobilize hostage taker at the first opportunity.
Sotto said there might be a need for a thorough review of the reforms being undertaken in the PNP.
Time to move on
Sotto agreed with Honasan that the country should now move on after the hostage fiasco.
“It’s too much. Let’s not contribute to the downfall of our country with this finger pointing,” he said.
Former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., for his part, said the media should not be blamed for the bloody end of the hostage drama.
“Let’s move forward. The police and negotiators need better training for emergency situation,” Pimentel added.
Sotto said credit should be given to the members of the crisis committee because the early phase of the negotiation went well until the arrest of the hostage-taker’s brother.
Sotto also defended President Aquino from accusation that he was nowhere to be found at the height of the crisis.
He said the President was at a Chinese restaurant across the US Embassy monitoring the developments. He also said that PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa was also giving instructions at the height of hostage drama.