Quirino Grandstand Hostage Drama

This hostage taking drama could have ended in a nicer tone, but unfornately it endeed in bloodshed. Hostage taker Rolando Mendoza and about least 7 Chinese nationals died tragically at the Quirino Grandstand shortly after SWAT team assaulted the bus to take down Mendoza.

Hostage drama started at around 10am (August 23, 2010) with Mendoza's demand for him to be reinstated at his post and to have all the charges against him dismissed. He was dismissed from his post as the chief of Manila Police Mobile patrol unit in 2008 after he was accused and charged of robbery with extortion.

Shortlyy after Mendoza announced the hostage of the Chinese national within the tourist bus, negotiators positioned themselves within the area that resulted for the release of some hostages. Negotiation was going well, however it changed rapidly as he was given the letter from the Ombudsman promising to review the case personally and with the presence of his brother being taken away while media coverage is on full gear added to the tension that led for Mendoza to kill a hostage. During the time when the brother was taken into custody, gun fires were shot. As the time passed by, at around 7:30pm, the bus driver was able to escape and with his story that the hostages were being harmed, SWAT was forced to assault the bus and the tragic ending happened.

As a result HK officials issued a travel ban to the Philippines.

This is a sad day for the Philippines. I do hope that we would learn from this tragic incident.

As a citizen of this country this is my take on the situation:
1. Policemen could have handled it better than what they did. At the start of the hostage drama, hostage taker Rolando Mendoza was cooperative enough to let go of its Chinese national hostages as long as his demands were satisfied.
2. There should have been a media black-out to this incident. On going live media coverage aggitated the hostage taker to do nasty things with his hostages
3. People who are not trained with hostage taking incidents should back off and let the experts do their job.

What the policemen needs is an intensive training to handle this kind of situations. Hopefully we can still improve and learn from this experience

MY DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS OF THE BLOODY QUIRINO GRANDSTAND HOSTAGE DRAMA. MY PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.