Common Sense, not Live Video, is mistake No. 1

Assistant Professor John Harrison, a homeland security analyst at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said that the Manila hostage crisis resulted into a tragedy because of the live video feed from media networks which was monitored by hostage-taker, Capt. Rolando Mendoza. “The fact that there was essentially live video was mistake No. 1,” Harrison said.

Frederic Gallois, former head of France's elite hostage rescue unit, the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, also noted that the tragedy resulted from the lack of “adequate equipment and tactical competence".

Tikboy begs to disagree. While these variables (or the lack of it) are present during the hostage drama, the No. 1 factor that triggered the tragedy is the lack of common sense of the ground commander, Gen. Rodolfo Magtibay, and the members of the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics now reduced to Sorry Wala Akong Training) who headed the assault. If they did, or at least exercised their mental faculties, they would have first requested for the blueprint or the diagram containing the specs of the bus while the negotiation was on-going, determined the possible entry points, the ways to access these entry points, and the possible equipments needed. If they also exercised their logic, they would have cut the video feed to isolate the hostage-taker from having an access to information, implemented strict crowd control thereby eradicating the chances of stray bullets hitting a kibitzer, or simply computed the cost-benefit-analysis of the situation. The hostage-taker couldn't have also seen the arrest of his brother, he wouldn't have been agitated, and deaths could have been minimized.

But of course, everything is not negative for the Philippine National Police. If they have one trait that Filipinos should be proud of, it is their bravery. Despite the lack of training, and despite the fact that they do not live up to the name of their unit, they still dare to follow the lack of common sense orders of their commanding officers.