Aquino, police chief call for probe into hostage crisis

Manila Philippine President Benigno Aquino and Philippine National Police Chief Director Jesus Verzosa on Wednesday called for an investigation while admitting that police made mistakes in their handling of a 12-hour hostage crisis on Monday night.

The crisis resulted in the deaths of one hostage-taker and eight Hong Kong Chinese in Manila's tourist district on Monday night.

Aquino appointed Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima as lead investigators, and asked Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Eduardo De Mesa to conduct a simultaneous inquiry into the incident which sparked anger among relatives (of the hostage-taker and his victims), local and foreign media, the Hong Kong government, and television viewers worldwide who watched the hostage-crisis from 9am to 9pm on Monday.

Aquino on television said: "We want a thorough investigation of everything that transpired. I have directed the fullest cooperation with the Hong Kong authorities on the part of our officials. We expect more facts to come to light". His comments followed his condolences to the victims' relatives, three hours after the carnage at Manila's central Luneta Park.

The 12-hour hostage-taking began when a disgruntled policeman, former Inspector Rolando Mendoza, armed with an M16 assault rifle, hijacked a bus that carried 25 Hong Kong tourists and Filipino tour assistants. Nine of the tourists were released before the carnage. "How can you be satisfied if there were some people who were killed?" Aquino said.

"The outcome of the hostage-taking incident at the [area of the] Quirino Grandstand is indeed very unfortunate that it should warrant a thorough investigation," said Verzosa.

Manila police commander Leocadio Santiago agreed that the incident should be investigated. He said: "We saw some obvious shortcomings in terms of capability and tactics used, or the procedure employed and we are now going to investigate this".

Aquino, after reading the incident report, also blamed the media coverage for the situation, adding that this practice would no longer be allowed in future. "Media coverage of his [hostage-taker's] brother [police officer Gregorio Mendoza [being taken into custody further agitated the hostage-taker," said Aquino.