Philippine police arrest brother of hostage-taker

Police officer Gregorio Mendoza, the brother of hostage-taker former policeman Rolando Mendoza, has been arrested

Last updated: September 15, 2018 | 19:09

1 MIN READ

AFP

Manila: Police officer Gregorio Mendoza, the brother of hostage-taker former policeman Rolando Mendoza, has been arrested on Monday.

Rolando Mendoza had held hostage a bus carrying tourists in Manila. He freed nine of the 25 tourists on board, but later said he had shot two captives.

His brother tried to elude arrest with his children and wife, but were caught by police.

"They (policemen) want to take me and arrest me. They said I will be charged as part of the hostage taking," Gregorio Mendoza said. He called on President Benigno Aquino III for help.

He was trying to enter the tourist bus to negotiate, but was carrying a gun, police said.

The Filipino driver of the bus managed to escape after shooting ensued hours later, when police tried to storm the bus.

Reporters said that the Filipino driver had "bad news" regarding the condition of the tourists who have been held hostage since Monday morning.

Former police officer Rolando Mendoza looks out of a window of a bus carrying tourist hostages at Quirino Grandstand in Manila.

Three hostaged foreign tourists, two children and their mother (C), are escorted by negotiators (L and R) after their release from a bus after an ex-policeman armed with a high-powered assault rifle took hostage the tourist bus carrying more than 20 adults and children from Hong Kong in Manila on August 23, 2010 while another hostage (top L) looks out from the bus window. Six hostages, three of them children, were released by the gunman about three hours after the standoff began, with the drama being played out live on national television.

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