Quirino Grandstand Hostage Fiasco: An Insight

Posted: August 23, 2010

Hostage-taking cop’s brother walks out of negotiations        

                       By Jeannette Andrade, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza, the brother of hostage-taking cop, Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, walked out of negotiations with his beleaguered brother on Monday evening, urging him to surrender peacefully. 

Gregorio walked away from the negotiations within five minutes, telling his brother “Walang mangyayari dito (Nothing will happen here).” Mendoza seized a tourist bus full of Chinese tourists from Hong Kong on Monday morning to protest his dismissal from service early this year, on charges that he tortured a drug suspect and attempted to extort money from him. 

Mendoza has so far freed nine of at least 25 hostages, the latest a Filipino, Danilo Medril, 64. Medril walked to the huddle of cops stationed beside the Quirino Grandstand, where the hostage drama has been unfolding since Monday morning. 

Aside from Medril, Mendoza has released eight people: two women (who had asked to be allowed to go to the comfort room), another woman, her two daughters and her son, a middle-aged man said to be diabetic, and another Chinese male tourist. 

         And people kept on asking ‘Nasan na daw si PNoy?’ Streams of comments-both positive and negative-poured down his facebook page. I just couldn’t get it. Alright! It is of government’s concern but should PNoy be wherever a hostage taking is occurring?  In my opinion *kasi ako sumulat nito* , NOT!         

      Because doing such - as in paying attention to drama like these - will encourage others to do the same to be granted of what they were wishing for. I’m not saying that the cops should let the hostages to be killed. Nah. But they should have strategized a more effective plan that would involve less bloodshed. *Although I love the sight of blood - I do not favor violence. Peace!

* *Abrupt End of Post* 

 Note: I’m a bit incoherent as of this moment due to over 5 days lack of sleep, fatigue, deadlines, illness and such. :| And I didn’t particularly watched the whole coverage for I am sick. 

 [EDIT: 082410]   

    I was shocked when I entered our room - why? My classmates, whom I labeled as people who doesn’t give a damn attention to whatever is going in the outside world, were in the middle of a discussion. About what? Obviously, the hostage drama that happened at the Quirino Grandstand wherein lives were taken mercilessly. I was proud of them. Lah! They know how to analyze the situation. Blah.Blah. Blah. But the sad part is that - whatever we do, we cannot take back what had happened and there’s only one option - to try to do anything in our power to build back the foundation of our relationship with the HK citizens.