Rizal Park hostage crisis: PNP says capability better

MANILA, Philippines - Five years after the hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead, the Philippine National Police is now more capable of handling hostage-taking incidents, a PNP official said yesterday.

PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor said the police force has upgraded policies and procedures in responding to hostage situations to prevent a repeat of the Aug. 23, 2010 incident.

“The PNP has strengthened its rescue capabilities during hostage-taking incidents,” Mayor told The STAR.

In 2011, the PNP issued a handbook on hostage situations to serve as a guide for police officers involved in negotiations with hostage-takers.

Mayor said part of the system upgrade is the capacity enhancement of counterterrorism and crisis response units of the Special Action Force, Maritime Group and Aviation Security Group.

The PNP has conducted training programs to ensure that policemen would be able to handle hostage-taking incidents.

While noting that hostage situations call for different approaches, the handbook provides basic details and specifies intervention principles, enforcement, communication skills, intelligence gathering, and what is at stake when force is an option.

The objectives of negotiations include the safe release of the hostage; safe arrest and turnover of the perpetrator; minimizing harm to both the hostage and hostage-taker, and minimizing damage to properties.

The handbook was conceptualized under the supervision of PNP deputy chief for administration Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo Jr., deputy chief for operations Deputy Director General Danilo Constantino and Director Benjamin Magalong, chief of the Directorate for Investigative and Detective Management.

On Aug. 23, 2010, dismissed police officer Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza held hostage 23 tourists from Hong Kong in a bus at the Quirino Grandstand to dramatize his demand to resolve a case filed against him with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Negotiators tried to pacify Mendoza, but the situation went out of hand, prompting him to go on a shooting rampage in the bus.

Superintendent Orlando Yebra, then head of the Manila Police District legal department, acted as chief negotiator during the hostage-taking incident, which lasted nearly 12 hours.