I trusted the men too much

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino said yesterday he had put too much trust on his men’s competence in dealing with a hostage taker last Aug. 23.

The President was referring to relieved Manila Police District director Rodolfo Magtibay, the chief negotiator in the Aug. 23 tragic hostage drama; and National Capital Region Police Office Director Leocadio Santiago. Magtibay, he said, had offered to retire while Santiago had offered to resign right after the bungled rescue operation that led to the death of eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker – a dismissed police officer.

In an interview with the country’s three major networks, the President said he was not ready to give up Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and Undersecretary Rico Puno.

Still, the President vowed that heads would roll after the probe on the hostage taking by the incident investigation and review committee led by the Justice Department.

“What happened – the shooting at the bus’ tires, the SWAT operatives’ difficulty in getting inside the bus, their being apparently confused – these things got into my nerves. The assurances that they had given me had not been realized,” he said in Filipino.

He said the “capable unit tasked for the job” of ending the hostage incident was the Special Action Force but it was nowhere to be found at the crucial hours.

“Perhaps I should have taken a more active role in the sense that the belief that General Santiago would oversee General Magtibay properly and completely did not happen,” he further said.

The Philippine National Police had ordered the relief of Magtibay after he went on an indefinite leave and assumed full responsibility for the hostage fiasco.

PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa, the President said, had asked to go on an early retirement even before the incident.

Mr. Aquino said the reason why the concerned police officers were still in their posts was in deference to due process.

The President reiterated that he was monitoring the situation from Bahay Pangarap, his official residence, and that he had to go to Emerald Restaurant, the command center on Roxas Boulevard in Manila when he saw that the police officers were having a hard time carrying out an assault.

The President said Santiago, as former head of the SAF, supposedly had extensive experience in dealing with such situations.

While he admitted wishing he should have taken a more active role in the hostage crisis, the President said he did not want to micro-manage the situation.

“The Peace and Order Council of Manila would have Mayor Lim as the head. And as you know, he is both a bemedalled officer, competent and experienced as far as these matters are concerned. The scene commander, General Magtibay, was backed up by General Santiago, who was the former commander of the SAF, and who is a person known to be very capable,” he said.

“I, perhaps, mistakenly assumed that those involved in man-made disasters were also attuned to their functions. We did not replace, for instance, a lot of the people who have, shall we say, direct responsibility in handling situations like this,” Mr. Aquino said.

He noted that standard operating procedure dictates that the government keep the hostage crisis at the lowest level.

“The assurances given to us did not happen. And so we went out and looked for the officials concerned,” Mr. Aquino said.

He said in fairness to Santiago, the NCRPO chief offered to resign after the incident. Mr. Aquino quoted Santiago as saying “I am ready to explain. I’m offering my head, sir. I’m going to do it if it’s necessary.”

Mr. Aquino said he was concerned with the turn of events, especially when the brother of the hostage taker was arrested and when hostage taker Rolando Mendoza rejected the documents brought by the negotiator upon his request.

He said he chose not to “micro manage” so not to encourage the hostage taker to make more demands.

But he reminded concerned officials of the things that they were supposed to know, like getting the necessary information about the hostages or finding language translators to communicate in Mandarin and Cantonese with the Chinese authorities.

He said that at the height of the hostage situation, he also had to attend to the budget proposal and the dengue outbreak.

He said he learned about the hostage taking via text messages and watched the initial developments on television.

Mr. Aquino said he called Verzosa to ask who was in charge, and even Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman to inquire if there were doctors and ambulances ready.

“There was also an oath taking ceremony for quite a number of people, which was my first official function for that day, after which I had the liaison that I asked for from the PNP, and Undersecretary Puno with me to keep me abreast of the developments while performing the other functions of my job and monitoring what I could from the TV,” Aquino said.

He said it was a conscious decision not to be at the command center early on so as not to impede the operations of the crisis management team.

“If I stayed all the time at the command center, they might always look at me everytime they wanted to make a move,” he said.

“So it was a conscious choice. I can stay there, have my pictures taken, show to the public I am so concerned about this but at the same time, I will impede the abilities and efficiencies of the people who are trained to handle these things,” Mr. Aquino said.

 ‘I am not perfect’

He also declared that the deadly hostage drama would “not define this administration.”

“First thing I will admit is I am not perfect and I can learn,” Mr. Aquino said.

“In the end, my administration will be judged on what we have accomplished and what we will accomplish in the coming years: a reduction in poverty in our country and the restoration of a government that is honest and sincere in its efforts to build a better nation,” he said.

The President said he himself called for a live interview before a panel composed of news anchors Mel Tiangco of GMA 7, Ted Failon of ABS-CBN 2 and Paolo Bediones of TV 5.

“By this question and answer question session any doubts in the mind of our people can finally be put to rest. Our government is now focused in taking the necessary steps to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again,” he said.

The interview lasted for one and a half hours.

The President said he was not being defensive, and that he only wanted to end many criticisms that he perceived as baseless.

“There has been much speculation and commentary on our response to the crisis. Some of the speculation and commentary comes from a lack of knowledge of what really happened during that day. I have asked for this opportunity to talk to you (yesterday) so that any questions that persist in the public mind may be addressed,” Aquino said.

Mr. Aquino said he was confident that the results of the “independent and transparent investigation” into the events of Aug. 23 would be fair, impartial and thorough.

“We have also begun efforts to improve the capability of our police forces to better handle situations like this should they arise in the future. We are also examining our internal processes and crisis management protocols to see how they can be improved. The results of all these efforts will be known by the public in the coming days,” the President said.

“Somebody has the gall to say I was not here at that time amongst other things. Some claims are worse but that’s how it is,” Aquino said.

“The only thing I was really striving for was, I want the people to understand what the situation was, why we decided to do certain things the way we did it at least as far as my office is concerned. So there is a reasonable expectation of future actions on their part. And hopefully not for a similar situation,” he said.