•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Manila. Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Tuesday vowed to increase police protection for tourists, amid growing outrage over a hostage crisis that left eight visitors from Hong Kong dead.

Aquino made the pledge as he received Chinese ambassador Liu Jianchao to brief him on the government’s handling of the crisis.

Monday’s ordeal ended in bloodshed on live TV with police storming the bus and killing the gunman, crazed ex-police officer Rolando Mendoza, after he fired at the tourists, killing eight.

The Chinese government urged its citizens traveling to the Philippines to exercise caution. Hong Kong, a special Chinese administrative region, advised all its residents to shun travel to the Philippines after the incident.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said his government was “appalled” and phoned his Philippine counterpart to voice concern. Hong Kong residents expressed outrage and news media there denounced Philippine police as incompetent.

Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo will fly to Beijing and Hong Kong to present the final report on the crisis to Chinese authorities once it is completed.

Philippine police defended their actions — pointing out that officers lacking proper equipment had risked their lives trying to bring the standoff to an end.

Of the 25 people on the bus, 13 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos survived. Nine of the survivors were freed by Mendoza hours before the gunfire began.

Seven hostages were taken to hospitals. One was in critical condition with a head wound, another had a shattered jaw, a third had a gunshot wound to the waist, while others were reported as having minor injuries.

At the scene of the standoff, relatives of two dead hostages attended a Buddhist ceremony on Tuesday meant to comfort those who die violently.

At the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong, protesters chanted slogans about the Philippine government being careless about human life.

Many Hong Kong newspapers printed mastheads in black out of respect for the victims, and flags in the territory flew at half-staff.

“Filipino police incompetent,” Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Daily News said in a front-page headline. The South China Morning Post called the killings “a wake-up call” for the Philippines to boost security and take gun-control measures.

“Had we been better prepared, better equipped and better trained, maybe the response would have been quicker despite the difficulty,” said Philippine Interior Secretary Jessie Robredo, who oversees the national police.

The 55-year-old Mendoza was demanding his reinstatement as a policeman.

Media reports said he was among five officers charged with robbery, extortion and grave threats after a Manila hotel chef complained they had falsely accused him of using drugs to extort money.

Mendoza was fired last year but protested his innocence.

He was demanding a signed promise from the government ombudsman that his case would be reviewed, but its delivery was delayed for hours, in part by Manila’s notorious traffic, and when it finally arrived he rejected it as insufficient, officials said.

After the Filipino bus driver had escaped and said Mendoza had fired at the tourists, the hijacker was shot in the head, police lobbed tear gas into the bus and commandos smashed their way in with sledgehammers.

One freed hostage said she saw her husband get fatally shot while trying to subdue Mendoza.

“He was very brave. He rushed forward from the back of the bus. He wanted to prevent the gunman from killing people. He sacrificed himself,” she said, adding that Mendoza at first “did not want to kill us, but since the negotiation failed, he shot to kill people.”

 

AFP, AP