TIMES EDITORIAL: CLOSE THE BOOK ON HOSTAGE TRAGEDY
[CARTOON COURTESY OF ZAMORA'S EDITORIAL CARTOONS BLOGSPOT]
MANILA, AUGUST 25, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) This is the anniversary of last year's 11-hour Luneta hostage-taking tragedy.
The administration must do more than it is doing now to put closure to this tragedy and its harmful consequences for the Philippine image and our relations with Hong Kong (and for our 200,000 or so OFWs there). It might even cast a shadow on President Aquino's forthcoming visit to China.
Whatever else the government should do—beyond what it is doing now—to calm the relatives of the eight Hong Kong Chinese who perished may not succeed in stopping them from doing what they did yesterday.
They displayed their anger at a press conference and demanded compensation and a direct apology from President Benigno Aquino.
Lee Mei-chun, whose son was among those slain, wailed in grief, accusing the Aquino administration of being insensitive to their pain.
"It has been one year, and I still cannot forget my son. Every night, I remember him," she told the press conference. "The Philippine government has not done anything and we cannot put it aside. I come here to fight for (justice for) my son."
Her two other sons held up a group picture of the victims, including their brother, Tse Ting-chunn, taken shortly before their bus was hijacked by disgruntled ex-policeman, Rolando Mendoza, who pulled the hostage-taking to dramatize his desire to be reinstated. He had been removed for cause.
Police stormed the bus and shot dead Mendoza but everyone could see on television that the rescue effort was like a Keystone Cops comedy—except that the eight HK tourists he had held as hostages were killed. They were not all killed by Mendoza. Some died from wounds inflicted by the rescuers' bullets.
The hostage-taking and the incompetent handling of the case by the Manila police triggered public outrage in Hong Kong. Until now that semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China maintains a travel advisory against the Philippines. Fortunately, HK tourists still come.
President Aquino ordered an investigation into the incident. And the probers, headed by no less than Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, made strong recommendations that would have satisfied the call for important heads to roll.
But the President and his administration ended up being heavily criticized because the Justice Secretary's recommendations were shelved. Ridiculously minor punishments were handed out to four policemen, while senior officials accused of incompetence escaped without a scolding.
What made it more painful for the victims' relatives is that certain officials who should have known better and acted swiftly and competently were reported by media to have gone to enjoy a meal while the tragedy was unfolding.
James To, a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, the equivalent of a mini-parliament, is here accompanying the relatives. He said the relatives had sent a letter to the Philippine government demanding that President Aquino make a formal apology to each of the victims and their families. The letter also asks the President to facilitate the payment of compensation.
The letter also urges the government to improve police efforts to keep tourists safe and to punish the officials who mishandled the rescue.
Administration officials have been saying that the Philippine government had already apologized for the incident, and therefore there was no need for President Aquino himself to meet with the victims' relatives to apologize to them.
Palace's formal statement The President's spokesman, Secretary Edwin Lacierda, released a statement yesterday titled "On the Commemoration of the Quirino Grandstand Hostage-taking Incident." It goes:
"On the eve of the first anniversary of the Quirino Grandstand Incident, the Filipino People renew their sympathy and solidarity with the families of the victims and the people of Hong Kong.
"Concerned private citizens have also established a Solidarity Fund for the families of the victims, in keeping with the deep solidarity Filipinos feel for the victims and their families.
"The Philippines has undertaken the investigations into official culpability: resulting in a dismissal and the filing of administrative charges against four police officials.
"We have improved the capability and equipment of the Special Action Force and established a Tourism Police to ensure the safety of visitors.
"Officials of the government will be meeting with some of the families of the victims and with a Hong Kong legislator to share updates on progress in the year since the tragedy took place.
"We recognize the grief that continues to burden the relatives of the victims and we remain committed to reforms and improvements that will move relations between our peoples forward."
Why doesn't the President apologize? Unfortunately, especially to those of the victims' relatives who adhere to the Taoist tradition of the Chinese people (and many Chinese, including Christians, do still hold Taoist beliefs), Secretary Lacierda's statement is not good enough to satisfy the hunger for justice of the victims' souls. We hope the officials assigned to deal with the relatives are able to give the satisfactory action and words.
Why doesn't President Aquino write a letter of apology worded in a way that would not expose the Philippine Republic to expensive damage suits but convey the grief that the President and his high ministers in the Palace have felt over the victims' death? Such a gesture will go a long way to restoring the good relations between our country and the HKSAR and its people, many of whose families are employers of our OFWs.
That gesture, we are sure, will turn out to be something that Chinese leaders in Beijing will find to be a good reason to praise the President for.
And the officials Secretary de Lima recommended punished should be sanctioned. That would be a blow for good governance.
RELATED HEADLINE NEWS FROM MANILA TIMES
KIN OF BUS HOSTAGE VICTIMS STILL MAD Tuesday, August 23, 2011 00:00 Written by : Rommel C. Lontayao, Mayvelin U. Caraballo, Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz, Jomar Canlas
[PHOTO - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Monday meets with relatives of the victims of the August 23, 2010 bus hostage-taking that left eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostagetaker dead. PHOTO BY JESSIE LAURETA]
JUSTICE. Apology. Compensation.
Not necessarily in that order but those were the demands made by furious survivors and relatives of Manila hostage-taking victims on Monday on the eve of the first anniversary of the tragedy.
Lee Yung Chuen, a survivor, told a press conference, "We come back here to demand justice and to tell the government of the Philippines that we are still angry."
She said that the survivors and relatives of the victims were still angry as they had not received any public apology and nobody has been made accountable for the botched rescue operation that left eight Chinese visitors from Hong Kong and their abductor dead at Quirino Grandstand of Manila's Rizal Park (Luneta).
"Nobody from the Philippine government approached us... After the 11-hour stand-off, we were sent to hospitals but were refused entry. I was very angry," Lee added.
"We never even got a phone call or a letter apologizing for what happened. That should have been the most basic thing to do. None of us received a word from the government of the Philippines, " she said.
According to her, they "waited for 10 to 11 hours for rescue but it came very late. We trusted the government of the Philippines to save foreign lives, but it didn't. "
Malacañang last week said that the government has moved on from the tragedy.
It added that apologies have been concretized by the actions that the government has taken especially in upgrading safety and security features, prosecution of officials and other matters that the Hong Kong government had asked of the Philippines.
The Palace maintained that it had taken concrete actions to prevent a similar incident from happening.
Tse Chi-kin, brother of the Hong Kong tour guide who died in the hostage-taking, said in tears during a press conference that they are "all scared to be here (Manila) again because the terror of our loved ones began here, but we have to come back to look for justice and to fight for my brother and all other victims."
"Those injured are still suffering from the pain in their body and in their heart. The family of the deceased are still feeling lost," he added during the press conference held at Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila, where they were held at gunpoint by the hostage-taker and driven to Quirino Grandstand.
The survivors and relatives blamed the Philippine government for the disorganized, uncoordinated police operation that resulted in the death of the eight hostages.
James To of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, who accompanied them to Manila, berated the current administration's inaction on the crisis.
To said that they had requested a dialogue from President Benigno Aquino 3rd but the Philippine leader refused to meet with them.
"We demand public apology. Provide reasonable compensation for the victims family and proper accountability for those officials found of gross negligence," he added.
To said that there should be improved measures to safeguard tourists.
On August 23, 2010, Filipino ex-policeman Rolando Mendoza hijacked a bus carrying 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos in Manila in a bid to be reinstated in the police force.
An investigation committee recommended the filing of administrative and criminal charges against certain police and local officials who were accused of bungling rescue operations.
The committee later released a report containing recommendations on protocol for hostage crises. Mendoza was removed from the police force after 31 years of service because of his alleged involvement in an extortion incident in Manila.
He was dismissed from the service on recommendation of the Office of the Ombudsman.
The hostage tragedy strained diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Hong Kong.
The survivors and relatives were met at Ninoy Aquino International Airport by Liu Jianchao, the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines.
They met later also on Monday with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, whom President Aquino had delegated to receive the visitors and who told them that she was not in the position to make any apology on behalf of the government.
Besides, she said, the President had repeatedly expressed regret about the tragedy.
Rommel C. Lontayao, Mayvelin U. Caraballo, Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz, Jomar Canlas and XINHUA
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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