Justice delayed Justice Denied: Mendoza Hostage Fiasco

The Mendoza Hostage Crisis at Quirino Grandstand

It was a tragedy but a good lesson to the leadership of the country. There were lapses of the PNP but I can understand considering the situation. I was not aware of the crisis until two-thirty in the afternoon and had keep watching the progress from six in the evening until its tragic end. During the incident I did not know if there was a crisis committee ever formed to analyze and give the proper approach to solve the problem, they said they had. I feel that people are putting the blame on the PNP alone. They are wrong. Before I went to my class in the afternoon I saw on TV the brother asking the hostage taker to keep cool that he will let the authorities be aware “sa mga hinanaing natin.” These appeal of the brother triggered speculations as to his involvement in the hostage taking. He was handcuffed and forcefully brought out of the scene that was viewed by Mendoza when he opened the television. MY GOD! It was freedom of the press, YES, but FREEDOM HAS LIMITATIONS. While there was the honest to goodness reporting blow by blow, it was not a boxing event you know.

The Chinese were outraged but it was just a façade. I do not know, but if we have to count how many Filipinos who are maltreated in their territory, I am sure the number is higher than the number of hostage victims. But something is still a big question in my mind. In an unscripted interview of the wife of one of those killed, she told the media that her husband tried to attack Mendoza but it was unclear whether that act forced Mendoza to shoot them. This is just mere speculation basing on the statement of the wife to the media. What caused the shooting is still unclear until the full investigation is done the question why did he do it is buried with him and we would never know.

If his intention was to kill the hostages, he should have not freed some of the hostages. If he allowed Filipinos to be free it was a strategy for them to tell his STORY, his CAUSE rather than a case of racial indifference. If he held the Chinese hostages until his end it was PERHAPS his intention to make them the ACE card for his appeal not because of racial reasons knowing that the government won’t allow an international incident like that. Whatever is done could not be undone, but it gave us an insight as to the technical needs of our PNP in crisis like that. There are still more dedicated policemen than scalawags and it would be unfair to generalize them.

For me it was the attempt of one of the hostages to salvage the situation that perhaps triggered the shooting. Putting myself at the situation, I would do the same once the opportunity comes. In this case when the attention of Mendoza was diverted to the TV monitor watching the arrest of his brother, perhaps the Chinese found the opportunity but he failed and in the struggle others were hit. Until the rewriting of this commentary, there is no comment from the Chinese survivors what triggered the shooting. Actually, the Chinese in the Philippines who could monitor the interviews in Hongkong of the survivors are not of a help. I am sure that they were interviewed but the result is sanitized so that Mendoza is left alone to suffer the hatred of the world. Is it possible that it was the heroic act of one of the hostages that triggered the shooting? we would never know because except for that one interview no other details I know what started the shooting.

Nobody in his right mind would jump at the man with a gun unless he came from the back. In other words the hostage found the right time when the hostage taker turned his back to the TV monitor. Again this is a mere guess basing on the testimony of the wife. Nevertheless, it was possible to happen that way if the TV was open and Mendoza was monitoring what was happening outside the bus. If the intention of hostage taker was to really kill then he would have not released some of the hostages earlier that day.

Actually it is not only Justice to the victims but also justice to Mendoza. ALL OF THEM WERE VICTIMS anyway and they need justice.

May God bless their souls.

The Case of the Nurse being Gang Rape

The case of this nurse being raped is sensational in the sense that she was a volunteer medical worker in a remote place in one of the towns in Maguindanao province. Ir is said that some of the perpetrators are members of prominent families in the area as if suggesting that it could be another case of justice delayed justice denied. I hope it will not end that way.