Philippine police gave up chances to shoot hijacker

Manila: Philippine police decided against shooting a sacked colleague who hijacked a tourist bus because they wanted to "save" him along with his Hong Kong hostages, a probe into the fiasco was told Friday.

Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno admitted to several mistakes that led to eight of the Hong Kong tourists being killed during the chaotic end to the day-long standoff that played out live on global television.

"There were a lot of chances where we could (have taken) him down," Puno told the inquiry.

However he said the crisis management committee decided against ordering the snipers to shoot the hijacker, 55-year-old former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza.

"The primary purpose there was to save everybody," Puno said.

Puno said the national government backed the Manila city government's decision to let the crisis drag on in hopes Mendoza would eventually tire and free all the hostages.

"The general idea then was, we would just tire him out and he would release the hostages," Puno said.

The hostage negotiating team believed Mendoza was cooperative, Puno said, borne out by his decision to free about a third of the 25 hostages throughout the day.

"By all indications he would release all of them," Puno said.

Mendoza, armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a pistol, started shooting about 10 hours into the ordeal after he saw his brother, also a Manila police officer, being detained just outside the bus.

Ill-prepared police were then forced to assault the bus, but they took over an hour to get into the vehicle.

Asked if the authorities had failed in assessing Mendoza's readiness to kill the hostages, Puno said: "Most probably, that is the case".

Mendoza took the busload of tourists hostage on August 23 in Manila in a desperate bid to get his job back.

He was discharged last year after a probe found he had sought to extort money from a suspect who had been accused of drug charges.

Philippine police chief Jesus Verzosa told the inquiry he agreed with the decision not to kill Mendoza early on.

"The hostage-taker was cooperating," Verzosa told the inquiry.

Puno, President Benigno Aquino's pointman for the hostage crisis, said he was taking responsibility for the failed rescue.