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Hong Kong Leader Criticizes Handling of Deadly Manila Standoff

August 24, 2010 at 2:18 am | Posted in World news | Leave a comment
Tags: Hong Kong, MANILA, Philippine

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang criticized the Philippine government’s handling of a bus siege that left at least eight tourists from the city dead in a Manila shootout.

Hong Kong urged tour groups in the Philippines to leave the country as soon as possible advised citizens to avoid traveling there after the bus was seized yesterday by a disgruntled ex- police inspector, who was killed by a sniper when officers stormed the vehicle. Families of the tourists took a charter flight to Manila this morning and were to return with survivors today, government spokesman Michael Yu said by telephone.

Hong Kong will fly its flags at half mast today and the stock exchange will observe a minute of silence at 9:50 a.m.

“This is a major tragedy,” Tsang told reporters late last night. It’s “disappointing that Hong Kong residents tried to make a pleasure trip to Manila ended up with death and casualties. This is very tragic. And the way it was handled and particularly the outcome I found it disappointing.”

Tsang tried to reach Philippine President Benigno Aquino to express “grave concern” and was unsuccessful, Tsang said, without elaborating.

Former senior inspector Rolando Mendoza, armed with an M-16 assault rifle, was shot in the head by a sniper, Superintendent Nelson Yabut told reporters. The eight tourists were confirmed dead by Aquino at a press conference that began around midnight. The Hong Kong government had put the death toll at seven during an earlier briefing, with two critically wounded.

The death toll has risen to nine, after another of the injured tourists died, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported this morning, citing local dzBB radio. The latest victim was a woman who died at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, Xinhua said.

10-Hour Standoff

The bloody ending to the siege was caused by the “mishandling” of the situation and not a breakdown in law and order, Philippine Tourism Minister Alberto Lim said.

“Manila is a safe destination and so are many other parts of the country,” Lim said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “This is an uncommon incident. It doesn’t happen every day.”

Police moved in to end the standoff after about 10 hours when shots were heard from the bus on which Mendoza was holding 15 Hong Kong tourists to protest his dismissal for extortion of a suspect.

The drama began around 10 a.m. yesterday when Mendoza seized a busload of at least 20 tourists and at least three Filipino employees in the historic district of Manila. He freed nine people, and demanded his reinstatement to release the others.

Radio Interview

The situation deteriorated as night fell and armed assault police took up position near the bus, according to TV footage and comments made by Mendoza to a local radio station that were reported by Agence France-Presse. Mendoza said he had killed two of the tourists and threatened to shoot the others, AFP said.

Police wearing flak jackets attempted to storm the bus and were forced to retreat after bullets were sprayed through one of the windows toward the vehicle’s rear about 8:20 p.m. local time. They were unable to shoot him earlier because he was using his hostages as human shields, Yabut said.

Police had been planning to wait out the hostage-taking before the situation deteriorated and forced the assault, Aquino said in a televised briefing in Manila. Retaking the bus by force was the “final option” because the hijacker seemed non- belligerent at the start, Aquino said.

The arrest of Mendoza’s brother agitated him and he shot at negotiators, Aquino said.

Extortion, Drugs

Mendoza, 55, was dismissed early this year for extorting 20,000 pesos ($443) from a drug suspect and forcing him to swallow a sachet containing the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, or ice, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported, citing police records.

The incident underscores the risks of traveling and working in a country ranked 130th out of 149 in the Global Peace Index, a measure of factors such as violent crimes, access to weapons and political instability. Newly elected Aquino faces three armed insurgencies from Islamic and Communist groups, and has pledged to crack down on corruption in the police force and end the use of more than 100 private armies.

No Easy Solution

“This isn’t one isolated incident,” said Dane Chamorro, an analyst at Control Risk Asia, which advises companies on political and economist risk. “The problems are not things that happened in last five or 10 years, but have been there for decades” and any solution would require “more than a five- or six-year term in office,” he said.

The Philippines attracted 2.7 million tourists last year, about 4 percent of all arrivals into the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to the bloc’s website. Malaysia led Southeast Asia with 23.6 million visitors, followed by Thailand with 14.1 million, Singapore with 9.7 million and Indonesia with 6.5 million.

In a separate incident, a South Korean pastor was shot dead on his way home from the airport in Manila, South Korea’s foreign ministry said yesterday. The killing was unrelated to the bus hijacking, ministry spokesman Kim Young Sun told reporters in Seoul. Two of seven other South Koreans who were with the pastor at the time of the attack were unharmed, Kim said.

–With assistance from Wing-Gar Cheng and Frederik Balfour in Hong Kong and Cecilia Yap and Joel Guinto in Manila. Editors, Dirk Beveridge.