Living with the Aftermath

 Aftermath: The Luneta Hostage Crisis

Because I am a religious radio listener, I was naturally tuned in that day. At 10:00  in the morning, the news said that there was a hostage taking incident involving foreign tourists riding a tourist bus. A certain dismissed police officer commandeered the bus from Fort Santiago, a famous tourist spot .

At first they said the tourists were  Koreans, which I immediately  posted in my facebook account. But immediately corrected as well, when media said those involved  were Hongkong and Chinese nationals.

It was clear from the video shots that the hostage taker was armed with high powered firearms. What went wrong during this crisis? My two cents worth and this I am not saying just now but as early as noon of that fateful day, I thought that

  • the police were ill prepared  to handle hostage  crisis situations
  • media was too eager to broadcast such a very sensitive situation.. hello..as always everyone wanted to out-scoop each other
  • absence of top PNP officials at the time the situation was turning from bad to worse .."entirely a police matter?" har har
  • top government officials mishandling of  the incident.. where were they? perhaps not early on but as the situation developed towards the afternoon.. didn't this involve foreigners? how does this government measure the importance of a situation to warrant direct involvement of concerned top officials?
There were and still are so many reactions, comments, criticisms not only on tbe way the Police,  the DILG and the President himself  handled the situation. It would be redundant to mention them again, but..

If only to appease the Hongkong government and its citizens, does this not warrant a resignation somewhere at the top?

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