MPD launches manhunt for hostage taker's brother

MANILA, Philippines -  The Manila Police District (MPD) has launched a manhunt for the brother of slain hostage taker dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, who killed eight Hong Kong tourists in Manila last year.

A Manila court issued recently a warrant of arrest against Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza for alleged conspiracy to commit serious illegal detention in connection with the hostage crisis.

Police Chief Inspector Edgardo Carpio, head of the MPD Warrant section, said that police teams are now tracking down the suspect.

Carpio said the MPD received two weeks ago the warrant of arrest dated Feb. 24 issued by Judge Albert Tenorio Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had filed at the Manila RTC charges of conspiracy to commit serious illegal detention against Gregorio, who is also facing charges of illegal possession of firearms and civil disobedience at the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court.

MPD Warrant section members led by Inspector Fred Ramos searched last week the house of the suspect’s parents at Barangay Banadera in Tanauan, Batangas, but they failed to find him.

Carpio said Manila policemen also failed to find Gregorio at his house at Oroquieta St. in Sta. Cruz, Manila as well as in his rented house in Fairview, Quezon City.

Gregorio was accused of aiding his brother Rolando, who held hostage 21 Hong Kong tourists at the Rizal Park in Manila on Aug. 23, 2010. 

Rolando, who was dismissed from the police force last year for extortion, commandeered a Hong Thai Travel tourist bus in Intramuros and held hostage the Hong Kong tourists and four Filipino guides for several hours in front of the Quirino Grandstand at Rizal Park.

Mendoza, armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol, had released several hostages before the police special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team assaulted the bus, resulting in the death of the hostage taker and eight tourists.

Police hostage negotiators said Rolando turned violent due to frustration after failing to get his demand to be reinstated to the police force.

Mendoza also started shooting the hostages when he saw on the television on board the bus live footage of his brother Gregorio being arrested.

Gregorio was accosted for failing to help in the negotiation.

Several days after the incident, the MPD charged Gregorio with civil disobedience before the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 11 for allegedly crossing a police line while the hostage-taking incident was ongoing.

He was also charged with being an accomplice in the hostage-taking incident.

“The said accused, knowing the criminal design of his brother Rolando Mendoza in taking as hostages inside the bus 21 Hong Kong nationals, including five minors and four staffers of a Filipino travel agency, detaining and depriving them of their liberty, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously cooperate in the execution of the offense of serious illegal detention,” Assistant State Prosecutor Vimar Barcellano said in the information filed against him last February.

Barcellano, who is also the acting Manila City prosecutor, recommended bail of P200,000 for Gregorio’s temporary liberty.