Manila hostage tragedy survivors call for apology from Phl gov't

HONG KONG – Survivors of the Manila hostage tragedy two years ago reiterated yesterday their call for justice, including reasonable compensation for them and the families of the fatalities as well as a public apology from the Philippine government.

Three survivors of the hostage drama and two brothers of the slain tour guide went to the Philippine Consulate to express outrage over what they considered the Philippine government’s lack of concern for the victims of the tragedy.

The group observed a minute of silence before chanting “Justice undone. We will never forget.”

The group was composed of Tse Chi-kin and Tse Chi-hang, brothers of killed tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chunn; and survivors Lee Ying-chuen, Joe Chan Kwok-chu and Yik Siu-ling.

The group was accompanied by legislator James To Kun-sun.

The group met Consul General Noel Servigon, Deputy Consul General Rosanna Villamor-Voogel and Consul Val Roque.

They handed to the consulate officials a letter addressed to President Aquino.

“From the beginning up to now, our requests or demands are the same. First is for the government to apologize to the victims. Second is to make reasonable compensation to the victims,” Tse told reporters after the meeting.

“Third is for those government officials in Philippines to be held accountable for the whole event, including the failure of the rescue operations, delayed medical treatment, poor decision that they made. And lastly is to improve the safety measures for the tourists,” he added.

Servigon assured the group that measures were already in place to ensure the safety of tourists in Manila.

“The police protection of tourists, the national crisis management manual is about to come out. We told them about these measures that we have undertaken to protect tourists to avoid repetition of this incident,” Servigon said.

He, however, admitted that the consulate was unable to give the group any update on their demand to hold concerned officials accountable for the bungled rescue operations.

“They expressed disappointment that we could not provide them information,” he said.

The group is reportedly set to meet Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok today to express its concerns.

The Hong Kong government, for its part, said it continues to assist the hostage survivors and the families of the eight hostage victims.

“The government has all along been rendering assistance to the victims and their families, including the provision of medical treatment, social welfare, education and housing, etc. The relevant government departments would continue to follow up with those cases and render appropriate assistance,” a Security Bureau spokesman said.

“We also meet with victims and their families from time to time and would relay their requests through the proper channels,” the spokesman added.

The Philippine Consulate offered a Mass for the hostage victims the other night at St. Joseph’s Church in Central.

Black alert

 The Hong Kong government, meanwhile, is keeping its travel ban to the Philippines.

The Hong Kong Security Bureau said it has to maintain its black outbound travel alert (OTA) due to “severe threat” its citizens face in the Philippines.

“When assessing the need to issue an OTA, our primary concern is the threat to personal safety which takes into account factors like the nature (e.g. whether it is targeted at tourists), level and duration of the threat, etc. Based on these considerations, we raised the OTA for the Philippines to black following the hostage taking incident in Manila,” a Security Bureau spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that they regularly review the safety situation in the Philippines, including measures to enhance the safety of travelers.

“The incident investigation and review committee (IIRC) of the Philippines is reported to have reviewed the mechanism and procedures of handling emergency incidents. We hope that the relevant report will lead to concrete improvement measures to enhance the crisis management mechanism, protect the safety of travelers and avoid recurrence of such incident in the Philippines,” the spokesperson said. 

The Philippine Consulate expressed optimism that the black travel alert would be lifted soon.

“As of now, they still have not made a decision to lift it. But we are waiting for developments. We are optimistic, on the part of the consulate, that these developments will come soon,” Servigon said. 

He added that the consulate continues to make representations with Hong Kong authorities on the issue.

But despite the long-standing black travel alert, the Department of Tourism reported that the number of visitors from Hong Kong increased two percent in the first half of this year from the 138,000 in the same period last year.

On Aug. 23, 2010, dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza commandeered a tourist bus carrying 21 Hong Kong and Chinese tourists outside Fort Santiago and ordered its driver to proceed to Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park. He demanded his reinstatement in the service and the dismissal of extortion charges against him. The hostages included four Filipino guides.

Mendoza released some of the hostages during the nine-hour negotiation before he and eight of the tourists were killed in a botch rescue attempt by Special Weapons and Tactics team of the Manila police.

The other fatalities aside from Tse were Ken Leung Kam-Wing, 58, and his daughters Doris Leung Chung-see, 21, and Jessie Leung Song-yi, 14.

Ken’s wife Amy Ng Leung Yau-woon, 53, survived the tragedy, while her son Jason Leung Song-xue, 19, suffered serious head injury and was hospitalized for months.

The three other victims were Wong Tze-lam, 51, his wife Yeung Yee-wa, 44, and sister-in-law Yeung Yee-kam, 46. The Wong couple’s two children – Tracey, 15, and Jason, 12 – survived the tragedy after being freed by the hostage taker.  – With Sandy Araneta