HK tourists in Manila bus hijack

last SG · 2010-08-24T16:28:01+00:00

From the news, China is extremely furious over how the Philippines police handled the situation and is demanding the Philippines govt to conduct a thorough i...

zichuan SG

R.I.P

QX179R SG

Officials left as Philippine bus hijack hit critical stage

Philippine officials managing a hostage crisis left their posts as a gunman who had seized a busload of Hong Kong tourists began shooting.

Manila deputy mayor Isko Moreno told a public inquiry that he'd gone to a nearby hotel to watch the crisis unfold on television.

Yesterday, it was revealed that major Alfredo Lim had similarly gone to a restaurant at the height of the incident.

The two said they left the crisis command post soon after the hostage taker rejected a compromise deal and fired a warning shot.

Mr Moreno said he had been frustrated by the city government's failure to bring a peaceful end to the situation.

His testimony came after details emerged of a catalogue of mistakes by other police and government officials in the central Manila standoff.

The incident on the 23rd of last month left 8 Hong Kong tourists dead.

-- 938Live

fudgester SG

Officials left as Philippine bus hijack hit critical stage

Philippine officials managing a hostage crisis left their posts as a gunman who had seized a busload of Hong Kong tourists began shooting.

-- 938Live

I can understand leaders taking toilet breaks or something....

But this is the first time I've ever heard of leaders going off to relac one corner in the middle of a crisis.

Both the mayor and his deputy at that!

QX179R SG

Philippines needs more time

MANILA - THE Philippines on Sunday said it needed more time to complete its official inquiry into a deadly hostage crisis that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

The investigation, which began last week, was to have been wrapped up on Monday before a formal report is submitted to President Benigno Aquino and Hong Kong authorities. But members of the investigating committee need additional days to question more witnesses as well as to re-enact the hostage drama that ended in a bungled police rescue, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told AFP.

'We will be extending up to Wednesday, it is not possible to wrap up (the investigation) tomorrow,' Ms de Lima said. She said members of the inquiry board would on Tuesday inspect the park where the hostage taking played out live on televisions around the world on August 23.

A re-enactment of the day-long crisis was to be also carried out Wednesday at a police camp where the bullet-riddled bus is being kept, she said.

A sacked police inspector hijacked a tourist bus full of Hong Kong tourists two weeks ago, in a crazed bid to regain his old job. The stand-off ended in a bloody mess, when unprepared police commandos launched a rescue attempt riddled with errors that left eight of the tourists dead.

Hong Kong authorities have demanded a speedy and impartial investigation amid a public outcry and a chilling of ties between the neighbours. The inquiry has so far uncovered embarrassing lapses from police and city officials who took part in the failed hostage negotiations. On Saturday, Manila's deputy mayor Isko Moreno told the inquiry that officials involved in the crisis had left their posts when the gunman began shooting while the force's best-trained unit sat out the assault. -- AFP

-- ST

QX179R SG

'Friendly fire' suspected

MANILA - PHILIPPINE investigators admitted for the first time on Thursday that police may have shot some of the tourists in a bungled operation that left eight Hong Kong residents dead on a bus in Manila.

Armed with an assault rifle and a pistol, sacked policeman Rolando Mendoza took a busload of tourists hostage on August 23 in a desperate bid to clear himself of extortion charges and get his old job back.

Eight of the tourists were killed and seven others were injured in the central Manila standoff. Police initially insisted the bullets that killed the tourists were all fired from Mendoza's guns.

Other bullets were fired into the bus by police snipers and an assault unit but they did not result in fatalities, police had said. But Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday: 'There is a big possibility that there (was) friendly fire,' adding experts are convinced some bullets could not have been fired by the hostage-taker.

Ms De Lima, head of an official inquiry, also said the forensic reports on some of the slain victims did not match the account of the driver of the tourist bus, who had told investigators the gunman shot the tourists at close range. 'What is crucial, occupying our minds, is if the shots were made at close range, (these) are not consistent with forensic findings,' she added.

Asked whether at least some of the victims could have been killed by 'friendly fire,' Ms de Lima said: 'We are not focusing (on that), but we should never miss that. Otherwise our report will be less than thorough.' The panel has asked the Hong Kong police to help with the ballistics aspect of the investigation, and a group of Philippine investigators are currently in the Chinese territory awaiting their counterparts' findings, she said.

-- AFP

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