With nearly a half century of business experience, Hong Thai is probably one of HK's best known travel companies, with affiliates in China, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, US and Canada. While insurance for accidental death to clients is an industry standard, this goes way beyond something like an automobile mishap. In order to maintain their customer base loyalty, they need to pull out all the stops. and go way overboard in their generosity. Then, they need to lean on the Philippine government for compensation, or threaten to remove the PI from their future travel destinations. Granted, other smaller operators will eagerly fill the gap and the threat is hollow, but in the face of public sentiment, Hong Thai cannot be seen to so easily forgive the Philippine government for their part in this. Insofar as with the Philippines, they too, must offer some sort of compensation even if they're under no legal obligation to do so. The suspect in this, was a discharged former police officer. In other words, he was already fired for poor performance and no longer considered in anyway connected to the state. As a private citizen the state would be under no obligation to compensate others hurt by his wrongdoing. That said, the images of him wearing his police uniform carrying a military weapon goes a long ways towards public opinion. Even if he was no longer a cop, questions of how did he regain access to his official weapon, et cetera, then becomes troubling for the government to explain. For those of you that have never been to the PI, the Filipino people have long had close relations with their ethnic Chinese. In fact, most average Filipinos would privately crow about marrying into Chinese families as Chinese are generally perceived as being very well off in the PI. Numbering about 5% within that population, Chinese control approximately 40% of the national wealth. Some examples would be San Miquel Beer, and Philippine Air Lines, both of which started as ethnic Chinese Filipino owned companies. While there is saber rattling with the PRC over the Spratly and other South China Sea islands, that's just politics. I seriously don't think there was any hint of less caring for the tourists because they were Chinese (and not Filipino or westerners); it was just plain old ineptitude by the Metro Manila Police responding to the crisis. An article appeared in the Manila Times in which the finger pointing is now beginning. Spoiler: In The Manila Times Incident to worsen country’s poor image By William B. Depasupil Reporter The national police on Tuesday admitted that their rescue team committed mistakes in resolving a hostage crisis in Manila that ended with eight dead Hong Kong tourists—plus the hostage-taker, a dismissed law enforcer—on Monday night. In Hong Kong, outraged Chinese protestors deface the Philippine seal at the Philippine Consulate. AFP Photo However, Director General Jesus Verzosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), himself did not admit any mistakes but conceded that the result of the hostage-taking incident was “very unfortunate.” He ordered an investigation after an admission by the commander of the Metro Manila police, Director Leocadio Santiago, that the law enforcers had shortcomings in handling the hostage situation. The hostage-taker, former Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza, was also killed in the incident. “We saw some obvious shortcomings in terms of capability and tactics used, or the procedure employed and we are now going to investigate this,” Santiago said on local television. Also on Tuesday, PNP admitted that there were at least five serious flaws committed by the police team that handled the hostage crisis, including the “inadequate capability, skills, equipment and planning of the assault team.” “Based on the observation of the PNP command group and staff there were really some defects in the handling of the rescue operation,” said Senior Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., the national police spokesman. He added that the errors observed included poor handling of the hostage negotiation; the occurrence of side issues and other events that further agitated the hostage-taker; inadequate capability, skills, equipment and planning of the assault team; improper crowd control; inadequate training and competence of assault team leader; and non-compliance to media relations procedures in hostage situations. President disappointed Even President Benigno Aquino 3rd, also expressed disappointment on the capability of the police, saying that they needed more training to improve their techniques in handling crisis situations. President Aquino acknowledged in a pre-dawn press conference that the tragedy highlighted many flaws in the ability of Philippine security forces to handle hostage situations. “There are a lot of things [that] resulted in a tragedy. Obviously we should be improving,” said the President, who took office less than two months ago. One of the problems he emphasized was the way the crisis played out through the media, with the gunman allowed to speak on radio and watch events live on the bus’ television, giving him insights into police actions. But Mr. Aquino nevertheless insisted waiting more than 10 hours before storming the bus was the right course of action, because police believed until that point they could convince the gunman to surrender. Thorough investigation Verzosa said, “The outcome of the hostage taking incident at the Quirino Grandstand is indeed very unfortunate that should warrant a thorough investigation.” “In the meantime, we will hold passing any judgment on what went wrong or what went right until we receive the final report from a team of experts who will look into all circumstances surrounding the hostage taking incident,” he added. He tried to assure the public—and assuage mounting anger in the Philippines and in Hong Kong—that the national police would closely coordinate with other government agencies to ensure the victims and their families receive the necessary services and assistance they might need while still in the country. That said, however, the chief came to the defense of the police rescue team. Verzosa explained that the response of police forces on the ground during the hostage crisis was the judgment call of the ground commander, which “from all indications were justified” based on his own assessment of the situation. Perception to worsen Security experts said Monday’s tragedy would deepen the Southeast Asian nation’s stereotype as a lawless, corrupt and chaotic land. “This will clearly have a tremendous impact on the Philippines’ tourism industry and the country’s ability to attract foreign investment,” said Rommel Banlaoi, head of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism. Banlaoi said that bungling by police, who waited more than 10 hours before storming the bus and even then could not get in, highlighted the inability of security forces across the country to help foreigners in trouble. “It only indicates that our law enforcement agencies have few capabilities to handle situations like this,” he added. “It reveals that our police and security forces really need to undergo training in order to prepare for terrorist attacks, kidnappings and other situations.” The Philippines has long lagged behind its neighbors as a tourism destination, partly because of a lack of infrastructure such as airports and hotels but also because of security concerns. About three million tourists visited the Philippines last year, compared with 14.15 million arrivals for Thailand, according to data from both governments. Pete Troilo, Manila-based business intelligence director with the Pacific Strategies and Assessments risk consultancy group, said that the Philippines was actually as safe for foreigners as most other Asian countries. However he said the “unique” and high-profile security threats in the Philippines—particularly terrorism and kidnappings—gave the country an unfair reputation for being far more dangerous than places such as Thailand. Muslim bandits who roam lawless areas of the southern Philippines have frequently made world headlines in recent years by kidnapping foreigners who ignore government travel warnings and venture there. “When you aggregate all the events it certainly doesn’t sound like a place you want to visit for leisure . . . and perception is reality when it comes to the Philippines,” he said. “But common sense can protect foreigners from the vast number of risks in Metro Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines.” Bob McKercher, professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s school of hotel and tourism management, said Monday’s events would have a “devastating” blow on the Philippine tourism industry in the short term. Children among victims Reports indicated that among those killed by Mendoza were a 13-year-old girl identified as Wong Chek Yu. One of the survivors, identified simply as Mrs. Leung, also claimed in some news report that her husband and her two daughters—ages 14 and 21—were among the dead. Also, her 18-year-old son was still in critical condition because of serious head injury. She blamed the government for the tragic incident, claiming that the gunman started shooting after the negotiation failed and the elite police Special Weapons and Tactic team stormed the bus. The victims were among the 25 passengers—Hong Kong tourists and three Filipinos—a bus that Mendoza hijacked on Monday to draw the attention of higher authorities on his alleged unfair dismissal from the police force. Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/top-stories/24472-police-admit-blunders Video showing just how poorly the MMP performed: [video=youtube;er14F36Vvtw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er14F36Vvtw&feature=search"[/video] Filipino news video showing sniper that engaged the suspect, notice that he is only using a M16 with a standard scope, a weapon and optics that is woefully underpowered for the job: [video=youtube;iuYAlzTjdzE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuYAlzTjdzE&feature=search"[/video] A wrap up in Canadian News: [video=youtube;K63QGnHuAJs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K63QGnHuAJs&feature=related"[/video] At any rate, a sad event all around.
^ Oh. it's 1 million now? :O. Haven't been following after this hostage after i heard something like 500k. Too bad money can't buy a family member back :(
^ The 2 young girls also got a brother (think he's 20) that was in critical condition, the father also passed on and mother is safe. Plus a 15 year old girl I believe that is still in hospital who has been interviewed by new crews, she's hoping to see her parents and is unaware that they have passed on. However her brother was safe because some people pretended to be his parents tried to take him away =_=. I am pretty sure it is 8 people that died as well =/. Like to add also how retarded the SWAT was too, I mean shooting through the windows with the curtains down is pure genius . I think a bit later, they tried shooting the tyres and they also had to 2 chances where the ex-cop presented himself in plain view. Very tragic and if the SWAT wasn't so useless then less deaths would have happened.
This is another example of the failure that is endemic with the authorities there. In what is considered a major crime scene, bystanders and passerby apparently are free to traverse the periphery of the incident. I personally don't blame the girls for being stupid. They're making the location and event into a macabre tourist attraction in and of itself, and that's just part and parcel of the human condition (they do this a lot in China too). The authorities however, should have seen this coming and have kept gawkers way back, towed the bus to a safe and closed location to continue the forensics (if there is even such a thing in the PI).
I'm pretty pissed at this whole incident, the Filipino special task force are a bunch fucking idiots. They just sprayed the bus with bullets and they probably killed some of the hostages. You would think in Philippines, were kidnapping happens quite a lot, that they will be trained for this kind of situation. It's too late now, 8 innocent people died and for what? A fucking douche bag who lost his job and the negligence of a sorry ass swat team .
The task force was incompetent and didn't even look equipped for it. Our NYC patrol cops look more equipped than they do.
this is a very sad story...almost made me tear http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...nadians-killed-on-philippine-hostage-bus?bn=1
There's truly no decency left in those ridiculous bystanders. The authorities are real incompetent failures... and too many innocent people died, because of it. Poor people... :( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11069616
The president thinks this is a joke http://hk.dv.nextmedia.com/template...id=4104&art_id=14380476&av_id=14380886&page=1
i almost broke a tear after finding out about this too. i can't even begin to think about how the victims feel considering how tragic and devastated of a state they are in. this at the very least should be a wake up call to all of the philippines. this whole ordeal could have ended a lot earlier than it did and the way the police force handled themselves in this matter is something the country should be ashamed of. my sincere condolences to those who were harmed or killed in this horrible incident...
I dno't think you can ever put blame on how they handled things. It's an unfortunate event. One thing though, why go to such a 3rd world country? It's sad, but that's not to say it won't happen any where. I just find it sad as well. Did they kill the hostage taker?
What can I say dont go there forever. I saw it on the news the Philippines so stupid and weak. Furthermore the country big shot dont know who he is was smiling during the press conference. I think this incident is a joke to them. The whole swat team cant fight one ex-policemen. They all should be fired. SO useless.
3 of the 8 that was killed was killed by the Philippines cops. 1 was killed by the hammer, when they smashed the windows and 2 was shot dead.
I'm sorry, but as much as this entire situation angers and upsets me, this news report isn't helping. This is bias as hell... the video had commentaries from random people dissing the president. They took ONE section from what he said, looked at 2 seconds of his expression that said the president thinks its a joke. I don't think anyone is stupid enough to laugh at this situation, especially one of political stature like that of the president in his own country where the event took place. The fact that they are doing this adds more fuel to the fire, making more trouble isn't what we need right now. I must say, I know SWAT team apparently have this rule where if its a must, they will have to open fire and kill everyone (or something like that), but for one guy, they needed 10 hours and 20+ police officer + a sniper with an M16? This is extremely embarrassing to the Philipipnes and I hope they learn from this. My condolences to all those who suffered as a result of one's selfishness.
USELESS SWAT team!!! seriously! Had sooo many chanes to shoot him! when he was by the door and on his own!! and how the hell did that driver "escaped" if he was handcuffedd?1?! and why did he tell the media that all the hostages is all dead?!?!?! ALSO why sooo long till the police do something! OMG!
