Tuesday, August 24, 2010

My Thoughts on the Manila Hostage Taking Tragedy

The hostage taking of a dismissed policeman of a tourist bus with Hongkong nationals on board came to a tragic end that will forever be remembered by the country. I thought it wouldn't turn bad because it seemed like the hostage taker will not harm the tourists and just wants to air his grievance but what happened later that night was truly tragic. Much has been said about the mishandling of the authorities and the media aggravating the situation. But the bottomline is eight innocent tourists who just went to have a vacation here in the Philippines were killed and the survivors will be forever be traumatized with the incident. It was truly disappointing how the hostage taking incident was handled. The safety of the hostages should be the top priority above anything else. It's obvious that the drama over the arrest of the brother of the hostage taker aggravated the situation and here is my take on the issue: Media is partly to blame because they should have not covered the incident live knowing that the hostage has access to TV and once he sees his brother being taken by the police that would have surely provoked his anger, I understand that it's different when you are in that moment and that the police did not issue a news blackout or something but it should be the discretion already of the news people, yes I understand they just want to inform the viewers but we, the viewers, we will understand if we will be on the dark with the hostage drama crisis as long as no one will get hurt and especially die. As for the police, I understand that the brother of the hostage was not helping matters by telling his brother not to accept the negotiator's offer but since he was already creating drama and drawing so much attention from the media, you should have not taken that guy because you know he will resist and it will just create commotion that will not reap any good results at all. The priority should have been the safety of the hostages. The ideal scenario is that after the hostages are released safely then they could go back to the brother and charge with obstruction of justice. I really don't want to be one of those people who just loves to blame people whenever bad things happen but in this situation I just really can't keep my thoughts to myself especially after seeing the victims. It was the last day of their trip here in the Philippines and they have to suffer this ordeal! I know it was not an easy job for both the media and police and that they also risked their lives but there were lapses and in that kind of crisis, we can't afford any lapses because one wrong move could cause lives. I just can't help but think that it could have been avoided.

1 comment:

Dez Garriel said...

Right kuya. And I don't blame it on the Philippines being third world because I believe that Mendoza could have surrendered safely. I read some articles online which revealed that one of the survivors told them that Mendoza didn't really want to harm them. Not until his brother was dragged by the cops. :(