MANILA, Philippines - The former chief of the Manila Police District (MPD) on Friday said he received no communication from a local radio station that hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza was threatening to kill his hostages during a critical period of the August 23 hostage crisis.

Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay, who was relieved of his command right after the hostage crisis, said he ordered the arrest of the hostage-taker's brother, SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, based on the recommendation of one of the negotiators that the brother had become a conspirator.

What he did not know at the time, he said, was that Mendoza could see his brother being arrested on nationwide TV and was telling a local radio station that he would kill some of the hostages if his brother was not freed.

Mendoza, a dismissed police officer assigned in Manila, took hostage 25 people, including 22 Hong Kong tourists and 3 Filipinos, inside a Hong Thai travel bus at Rizal Park last August 23 in a bid to be  reinstated to the service.

He was killed along with 8 of his hostages in one of the bloodiest hostage situations in the country's history.

An official committee is investigating various government and police officials to shed light on who is responsible for the bloody outcome of the August 23 hostage crisis.

In the inquiry, Magtibay said that on the day of the hostage-taking, he immediately took over as ground commander since the hostage incident happened within his jurisdiction. He also noted that any decision to elevate the crisis to the national level should have been done by a higher authority.

He said he received instructions from Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and Philippine National Police chief Director-General Jesus Verzosa to resolve the situation peacefully and protect all the hostages, including, if possible, the hostage-taker.

Magtibay said early indicators in the negotiations seemed to point to a peaceful resolution of the situation. He said the hostage-taker was releasing hostages periodically, and was friendly with the hostage negotiators.

He said the fact that Mendoza was a former MPD officer did not factor into his decision to assign two of his colleagues from the MPD, Superintendent Orlando Yebra and Chief Inspector Romeo Salvador, as negotiators. He said Yebra was the best negotiator in the police force, having had extensive training abroad.

Magtibay left hostage scene

The situation took a turn for the worse when the hostage-taker rejected a letter from the Ombudsman that promised a review of his pending motion for reconsideration.

Magtibay said he agreed with Yebra's assessment that Mendoza's brother, SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, should be taken into custody as a possible accessory to the crime after the latter allegedly told his brother that he should not accept the Ombudsman's offer.

The brother's arrest was covered live on TV and was apparently seen by the hostage-taker since a TV was inside the hijacked bus. This prompted the hostage-taker to fly into a rage and start threatening to shoot his hostages while being interviewed by a local radio station.

Magtibay admitted that he left the command post at the Rizal Park police precinct at the time of the brother's arrest at around 7 p.m.

He said he was summoned to a meeting at the Emerald Restaurant with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, National Capital Region Police Office chief Leocadio Santiago, DILG Undersecretary Ric Puno and several others to discuss the option to reinstate Mendoza to the police force.

On the way back to the command post, he said he was informed that the bus driver, Alfredo Lubang, had escaped and had told police that everyone inside the bus had died.

"I was about to leave Emerald and return with the order suspending Mendoza's dismissal from the service. I was about to board my car when I was informed that the driver had escaped. It was not very far, it was
just a few blocks away. I arrived there immediately and when I was convinced that lives would be saved, I ordered the assault," he said.

Media blamed for blocking communication line

During the inquiry, Magtibay blamed media for blocking efforts by negotiators to re-establish contact with the hostage-taker. He said that from the time of the brother's arrest until he gave the order to assault the bus, police negotiators were still trying to contact Mendoza to relay the message that he was being reinstated.

It was later learned that the hostage-taker was speaking to an RMN broadcast anchor live on air during his brother's arrest and was threatening to shoot the hostages if police did not  free SPO2 Mendoza.

Asked if he was informed about the hostage-taker's demand, Magtibay replied: "The demand of Mendoza was not properly communicated to me. I was not informed. On hindsight,I believe the failure of the negotiator to re-establish contact with the hostage-taker was the fact was the hostage-taker was talking to a media person."

He added that police was not able to monitor the different media outlets since they were already preparing for the last option: which was to assault the bus.

Hour-long siege

The MPD chief said he immediately ordered the local SWAT team to assault the bus after hearing from the escaped bus driver that the hostage-taker had started shooting the hostages.

"We believed that most of [the hostages] were shot. I was told that there were 6 to 8 shots, I did a quick math. If there were 15 left on the bus, probably half of them could be saved. That came to my mind quickly in order to save the remaining hostages," he said.

Members of the government panel, however, said there were many lapses in the bus siege, which took almost an hour before finally subduing the hostage-taker.

Teresita Ang See, a member of the committee representing the Chinese-Filipino community, said police failed to interview the local owner of the tour bus to find out the ingress and egress of the bus.

She said the tour bus owner, who was already at the command post, could also have informed police that the bus windows were made of fiberglass and would not easily shatter.

For his part, Magtibay said they received valuable information from the bus driver who told them of a button near the door that would allow police to open the door. The problem was -- they could not enter the bus because the body of a dead hostage was already blocking the door.

"The inability of SWAT to enter the door is not because of lack of equipment but because a dead hostage was on the stairs of the bus. We could not push the door inside," he said.

The MPD chief said the team could have used a special breaching tool that would allow them to extract the plexiglass and pull it outwards.

Magtibay defended the use of the MPD-SWAT instead of other, more fully armed assault teams in the bus assault.

"I did not forget that a final assault would be necessary but owing to my trust and confidence on the SWAT team on the assurance that I was given on the training that they had gone through, I will still tap them
to make the final assault," he said.