Philippine Crisis

On August 23, 2010, a bus full of Hong Kong tourists was held in hostage by a 55 year old former policeman, Rolando Mendoza in Manila Philippines. In the bus there were 22 Hong Kong tourists, along with 3 Filipinos – a driver, a guide, and a photographer. During the hostage, Rolando freed 9 tourists from the bus and the driver was able to escape safely through a window. Resulting from the hostage, 8 Hong Kong tourists died and 7 were wounded. The hostage lasted for 12 hours but Rolando fired his gun only during the end of the crisis when he saw his brother being taken by the police on the news from a monitor inside the bus. The major mistakes that the Philippine police did was letting the crisis show on media when it was happening and the ground commander failed to take control of the situation and his team. In my opinion, the police department of the Philippines was not able to do their job and did not handle the hostage as safely as they could have. Because of the carelessness, I think that the death of some Hong Kong tourists were committed by the police.