Manila hostage crisis fans scathing Chinese sentiments
MANILA, Philippines - Filipinos remain on the receiving end of criticism following the hostage incident at the Quirino Grandstand, which made headlines across the globe.
Filipino-Chinese Teresita Ang-See, chairwoman of the People's Law Enforcement Board, said several people expressed outrage and scathing remarks over Monday's tragedy that killed 8 Hong Kong nationals, referring to pages of reactions from the Chinese community.
"In the Takong Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, invectives were being thrown at the way the crisis was handled," Ang-See said in an interview at ANC's The Rundown on Wednesday.
According to Ang-See, some of them particularly noted that the Philippine government didn't give enough importance to the tragedy.
Some members of the Chinese community, for one, wanted to see the resignation of high-level officials as done by their government at the height of the melamine scare.
"I had to tell them, it's not how we do things, we're a democracy. We go through due process before we pinpoint," she explained. Hong Kong has already called for an independent investigation of the incident.
She may have defended our government, but Ang-See stressed that the Aquino administration should still issue an apology to Hong Kong and own up to the "indefensible accident."
"They (government) should stop being defensive because it is indefensible. They should just apologize, admit that everything that should not have been done was done," she said.
Ang-See also scored the media coverage during the hostage-taking. "Part of it is the media's fault. Your job should not come above the lives of the victims," she said.
She continued, "As far as I know, after the Jun Ducat incident, Melinda Quintos-De Jesus had come up with that protocol on how media should deal with the hostage crisis. Ninety-percent of that protocol went down the drain (this time). Nobody paid attention to it."
A call for sobriety
Despite the anger and frustration, Ang-See noted that many Hong Kong nationals and Filipino-Chinese accept and sympathize with the Philippines.
"Most Filipino-Chinese will stand behind the government and Filipinos on this issue," she said.
Several faults may have been made, and lives were lost, but now's not the time to point fingers at others, Ang-See stressed. She made the statement as she asked the Chinese community "not to add racism to an existing problem."
Instead of saying hurtful words, Ang-See said it would be better if we all help the Philippines stand up from this tragedy.
"We are sad and enraged that this happened, but this is an isolated case and we should help the Philippine government move on and recover from this," she explained.
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
Share your views
rolando mendoza was a rogue cop!!!
Fwd: The hostage taker was a rogue cop
Bobby Kalaw, HS’71, narrated to me how his son, Christian, had an encounter with hostage taker, Mendoza, in 2008.
Christian drove that night to Torre Lorenzo on Vito Cruz to drop off a laptop at the lobby. He parked on a vacant slot along the road. When he came back to the car, there were cops beside his car. They accused him of illegal parking. When he asked them how can he be illegally parked when there were other cars parked in front and at the back of his car. “Pilosopo ka pala!” retorted one cop. “bukasan mo yung trunk”.
When Christian opened the trunk, the cop then threw marijuana and pills inside and accused Christian “drug user ka pala!” Christian then turned to the crowd that had gathered and shouted “kita ninyo nilagay!” The cop then turned to the crowd with his hand on his gun and asked “sino ang nakakita?” The crowd immediately turned away.
The cop then instructed Christian to sit at the driver’s seat. The cop then got the seatbelt and wrapped it around Christian’s neck and pulled. As Christian was choking, the cop pulled his head back and the other cop shoved shabu down his throat….“yan may shabu ka na sa sistema mo!”, the cop said. (Christian later told his dad that his stomach grumbled from the shabu)
The cops then boarded Christian’s car and ordered him to produce his ATM card. They then went to the nearest BPI branch where the cop was caught on video using the card to withdraw the money from Christian’s account (the Ombudsman used this piece of evidence to convict the cops).
They then drove to the precinct where Christian was brought to hostage-taker, Mendoza . Mendoza then instructed Christian to contact any body he wished who can give them the money for his release. Bobby Kalaw was in the province when his son called him up. Mendoza took the phone and told Bobby that his son is in jail for possession of illegal drugs and that he is a drug user. He then demanded P230,000 for his release. Bobby replied that he did not have that large amount of money.
By then, one of the friends that Christian contacted came with P20,000 in cash. The cops then released Christian.
Mayor Lim learned of this incident when he was in a speaking engagement in SFO. Some one in the crowd read to Mayor Lim, Bobby’s email warning his La Salle friends to beware of the police precinct in Malate and their modus operandi on students.
Mayor Lim, upon his return, sacked the whole precinct and transferred Mendoza to Mindanao .
The Ombudsman then filed the appropriate cases against all the cops in the precinct that resulted in their conviction. Bobby was hesitant to file a case because they have no witnesses, no medical report and no evidence. It was the Ombudsman that gathered the evidence that incriminated the cops.
Bobby learned from his niece that she knows of 5 other students that were victimized by the same cops using the same modus operandi.
Bobby and Christian have put this episode behind them and moved on. They do not wish to be a part in Mendoza ’s hostage-taking caper. Bobby even told GMA’s Mike Enriquez that since he has nothing good to say about Mendoza then he will just keep his mouth shut.
Cheers.
Do you remember the time?
I sympathize with the Chinese. We should condemn violence in all form! Right? Or, wrong? Tiananmen square, yes?
Jackie Chan-- Thanks
Jackie Chan took a position of objectivity without blaming others, in the midst of anger from his compatriots. He did not accuse or judge us, Pinoys for happened. Thanks Jackie. If you read the blogs from FB, Twitter, etc, you will find Filipinos doing the opposite. It is very depressing, our own countrymen cursing, & adding more fuel to the fire. For them, it is easy to say anything, and everything- because we are a democratic country. These are all talk, and talk, and talk. Check this out in their blogs, you will not FIND solutions offered, or what they can do as individuals to help us Filipinos what we really deserve. It will be very difficult for Philippines to progress if we have people who whine, or find satisfaction of blaming others, without looking at them FIRST.