Weakness

Those   were   awful   details of hostage taker Rolando Mendoza’s final moments, preserved on tape in his interviews with Radio Mindanao Network and ABC TV-5.

But for one prominent expatriate, the most striking TV interview was with another hostage taker, conducted shortly after the Aug. 23 carnage.

Armando Ducat Jr., accompanied by another man, commandeered a busload of 27 school children aged four to six and three teachers from his own daycare center in March 2007. A child who was running a fever was soon released.

The bus was held for several hours in front of Manila’s City Hall, terrorizing the captives and creating a monstrous traffic jam.

Ducat’s demands: guaranteed education for all 145 children in his daycare, and an end to corruption. Who would object to that? After several hours of negotiations, with Luis “Chavit” Singson participating, Ducat surrendered and all the hostages were freed unharmed.

Those demands did not make Ducat’s offense a lesser crime. But there he was on TV recently, out on bail, giving his views on the hostage caper staged by Mendoza in Rizal Park.

“In my country,” the expat who asked not to be named told me, “if I violate traffic rules, I am freed on bail. If I hijack a busload of children, I stay behind bars.”

Who knows? Perhaps Mendoza heard of Ducat’s slap on the wrist and was emboldened to stage a similar stunt, if only to draw attention to his appeal for reinstatement that he believed was languishing in the Office of the Ombudsman.

This planet is a dangerous place. Jitters over visiting or doing business in Manila, which might have been generated by the bungled response to Mendoza’s caper, are likely to pass soon, except in Hong Kong and perhaps the Chinese mainland.

Economists have not revised their 2010 growth projections for the Philippines because of the hostage mess. Tourism receipts account for only a small slice of the GDP pie, and Tourism Secretary Bertie Lim says the industry is expected to fully recover in three months.

Businessmen and diplomats I have talked to since the hostage crisis said that they remained bullish about the country’s prospects in the Aquino administration. The expat who watched Ducat on TV said he remained “optimistic, hopeful” about reforms and progress in the Philippines.

We should see to it that the optimism does not turn out to be misplaced.

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What the hostage crisis highlighted was the weakness of our institutions: faulty grievance mechanisms, incompetence and disorganization in government, and a disregard for the law even by law enforcers.

If we can’t strengthen the rule of law, how can we fight corruption? If we can’t fight corruption, how can we ease poverty as promised by President Aquino? These are questions asked even by foreigners still bullish on the Philippines.

Mendoza’s case highlighted weaknesses in the judicial system. Can P-Noy fix this problem in an environment where politics keeps interfering in the administration of justice?

The government’s initial responses to the hostage crisis aggravated the tragedy. A British admonition should be useful for this administration: If you’re in a hole, stop digging.

The government is recovering somewhat, through the marathon public hearings being conducted by the incident investigation and review committee.

After all that transparency in the probe, the public will expect several things.

Apart from the obvious need for reforms in the police and crisis management, accountability should be determined, with no sacred cows. There should be a clear answer to the question of who was in charge, whether the lapses were unavoidable (sorry, it doesn’t look that way), and if sanctions should be imposed.

It’s worth noting that P-Noy’s mom had her own “Who’s in charge here” moment in her presidency: the powerful earthquake on July 16, 1990, which flattened schools in Nueva Ecija and a hotel in Baguio City and caused liquefaction throughout Luzon.

President Cory and her Cabinet members hid under a table, just in case a chandelier came crashing down, as the floor-to-ceiling glass walls of her office at the Premier Guest House rattled and the presidential vehicles parked outside jumped up and down. One of the journalists waiting outside at the gazebo dropped to her knees and started praying aloud for forgiveness for all her sins, the quake was that scary.

After the 7.8 magnitude tremor was over (followed by many aftershocks), President Cory and her Cabinet emerged from the Guest House, laughing like the journalists with relief that no one was hurt. That gleeful relief was aired on TV, against a backdrop of the dead and injured and grievous devastation across Luzon. Over 1,600 people died. P-Noy is not the only chief executive to be criticized for smiling in the face of tragedy.

Of course the smile was quickly wiped off President Cory’s face, and it was a grim-looking woman who inspected the ruins of a school in Nueva Ecija where heads and limbs could still be seen sticking out. When she asked the people in the school the perfectly reasonable question – “Who’s in charge here?” – critics pounced.

I don’t know if we are better prepared this time for an earthquake of that magnitude (risk consultancy Pacific Strategies & Assessments doesn’t think so).

But authorities have responded better to hostage situations in the past, and there is no reason why a repeat of the Aug. 23 tragedy can’t be avoided.

A simple prescription is offered by former President Fidel Ramos, a former constabulary/police and defense chief, who remembers the success of previous hostage negotiations, including one wherein a 707 Boeing was hijacked during martial law.

Ramos’ formula: follow the three S’s. Secure the hostages. Have a single command structure. Have a single communication line.

Strengthening our weak institutions, including cleaning up the police, is a bigger challenge.