A situation where things could have been handled differently and nobody could have lost

their lives, that’s the 2010 Manila Hostage Crisis. On the day of August 23, 2010, a bus was
hijacked carrying 25 people including 20 Hongkong citizens, 1 tour guide, and 4 local Filipinos.
The bus was brought from Intramuros Manila to Quirino Grandstand located in Rizal Park at 10
am in the morning. The hostage-taker was a senior police officer Cap. Rolando Mendoza, who
was armed with an M16 armalite rifle. Cap. Mendoza was wrongly accused of extortion and was
fired from his position, however, he knows he did not do anything wrong, so he wanted to be
reinstated. He appealed to the Ombudsman for reinstatement but a year later nothing changed, and
according to him Dep. Aguinaldo asked him for a large amount of money for him to be reinstated
from his position. Col. Orlando Yebra, his colleague in the MPD was the negotiator for the
hostage-taking and could understand what Cap. Mendoza was going through, which means that a
case of injustice and false accusations is not uncommon in the organization. Cap. Mendoza chose
to hijack a bus loaded with foreigners because it would most likely get the president’s attention
and since we do not have any economic, political, and military power this might affect our
country’s foreign relations. However, it seemed that it was not the case. After several negotiations
and a few hostages being released, nothing happened. The local government who has the capacity
to control the people cannot seem to control the media who without a doubt worsened the situation
by televising the snipers targeting Mendoza and showing his younger brother Gregorio Mendoza
getting dragged by the policemen which made Cap. Mendoza angrier. The government that has
the capacity to make decisions cannot even give firm and correct orders to the police officers, also
they cannot think of clever solutions to solve the problem. The Philippine National Police and
SWAT team possesses expert power; however, it was not used well and was even criticized by
other organizations like the FBI due to their poor and slow response to the crisis. When the driver
of the bus managed to escape, the PNP and SWAT team began their attack hoping to catch Cap.
Mendoza dead or alive. They first tried a sledgehammer, but it did not work because the glass was
very thick. Then they tried a rope, but it snapped, they could not think of any other choice but tear
gas. Finally, after a terrifying and frustrating 11 hours, Cap. Mendoza was shot dead after trying
to escape the tear gas thrown by the officials which by the way is another wrong move, especially
knowing that there are still survivors inside. The hostage incident killed a total of 8 Hongkong
nationals and left others injured. Aside from the existing territorial tension in the West Philippine
Sea, this incident added another tension between the Philippines and China.
 Based on my opinion, the rope that got broken while trying to open the bus door symbolizes
many things. Aside from the lack of correct equipment during these situations, the broken rope
symbolizes the broken trust of Cap. Mendoza to the police when they lied to him, it symbolizes
the betrayal of the government and his fellow policemen to him after years of service, the broken
hope of the hostages, and lastly, the broken rope symbolizes the broken political system in this
country where every one of us is the victim.

Inside-Hostage-Massacre.mp4
https://bit.ly/3heGNZW