PNP has no "Nego Team" but has "Euro Generals"

It's interesting to note that the Philippine National Police has no "Negotiating Team" organized or trained to handle situations like the Manila Hostage Crisis. This was disclosed by Supt. Orlando Yebra, the one who acted as a negotiator during last month's mismanaged hostage crisis. And worse, the PNP also has no TV or radio that could have assisted in monitoring the situation.

But on the contrary, the PNP has millions of pesos that can finance euro generals and their families to make "lamierda" in Europe. Interesting, isn't it? That's only here in the Philippines.

Magtibay: Just Once

Gen. Rodolfo Magtibay has a new theme song when he faced the National Bureau of Investigation probe on the Manila Hostage Crisis handling last August 23. The song: "Just Once" by James Ingram. It goes:

I did my best
But I guess my best wasn't good enough
'Cause here we are back where we were before
Seems nothing ever changes
We're back to being strangers
Wondering if we oughta stay
Or head on out the door

 We can't blame him naman. He really did his best as he claims and we can do nothing naman talaga kung yun lang ang kaya. Kung sabagay, nagpa-impluwensiya nga siya kay Mayor Alfredo Lim sa pag-handle ng sitwasyon kaya let's not blame him for the total wreck. Wala nga talaga siyang alam kahit ano'ng piga natin. Kahit nga yung kotong cops diyan sa may Lagusnilad di niya alam kung di pa na-"hindi ko kayo tatantanan" ni Mike Enriquez sa Imbestigador. Ano ka, P300 din yung nakuha kay Igme, ah! Buti si Tikboy nagtanong ano violation niya at lahat ng sabihin ng kotong cop, nabara. Si Igme kasi nagmamadali. Mantakin ba namang P500 ang pera niya binigyan pa nang sukli? (Teka, me share kaya dito si Gen. Magtibay? Papaano niya natustusan ang kanyang pagiging general kung ganun? Maliban na lang kung nakinabang siya sa Euro-general money.)

Pero dahil wala siyang alam, papaano ba siya naging heneral? Nagbayad din ba siya tulad nung mga driver na dumaan at nakotongan sa Lagusnilad? Posible. Kaya heto ang ebidensiya: Walo ang patay di pa kasama ang hostage-taker sa bilang kasama nang ilan pang sugatan. At mukhang naghihingalo na rin ang relasyong-pulitikal at pang-ekonomiya ng Tsina at Pilipinas. Lima ring OFW ang nakatakdang pugutan ng ulo dahil sa sentensiyang death penalty na posibleng revenge ng China sa 5 rin nilang national na napatay. Dahil dito, puwede pa ba tayong kumanta niyan ng "Just Once"?

Ewan.

The mysterious caller and the deterioration of the hostage-taking negotiations

After pointing at the media as a cause of the agitation of Capt. Rolando Mendoza to shoot his hostages, fingers are now being pointed at the mysterious caller or callers of the hostage-taker. According to government officials, Mendoza's cellphone was busy that the negotiatiors could not anymore contact him after he fired his gun.

While it may be true that the mysterious caller is a cause, we can trace the original problem to the intelligence of the ground commander. Nung na-lowbat ang cellphone ni Mendoza, bakit di na lang siya binigyan ng cellphone na ang mga negosyador lang ang nakakaalam ng number? Tingin ni Tikboy, nagbibigay ng opening si Mendoza para sa resolution ng problema kasi kung gusto nga talaga niya mag-charge, puwede naman sa bus. Sabi nga ng mga nabuhay na biktima, wala namang plano si Mendoza na patayin sila (mga hostages). Kaso, masyado nga lang talagang matalino at matibay si Gen. Magtibay. Siyempre, dahil nagpatong-patong na ang problema tapos gutom pa, siyempre kukulo ang tiyan at iinit ang ulo.

Sabi nga ni Aling Toyang na labandera ni Mam Alice na asawa ng pulis, kumukulo ang tiyan niya pag gutom siya kasama na ang ulo at dugo. Kaya dapat daw, pinadalhan na lang ng pinadalhan ng masasarap na pagkain si Mendoza at ang mga hostages. Imposible naman daw gumastos ng P300 thousand sa pagkain lang kesa naman gumastos ng halos P3 million para sa mga kabaong. Kung hindi nagutom si Mendoza at ang mga hostages, baka nagkaroon pa ng maayos na ending at ang drama baka maging komedi pa. Sa sabihin ng mga taga-Hongkong, "Punta ako ng Pinas para magpa-hostage kasi masarap ang buhay-hostage dun. Busog." O di ba, dadami pa ang turista?

Hostage-taker Mendoza and the HK racists: Is there a difference?

There are two touching and heart-warming incidents arising from the Manila hostage crisis: The tweets of Jackie Chan on Twitter, and the note of Hong Kong tourist Yik Siu Ling, a victim of the said hostage crisis.

But while Chan's and Yik's messages are products of intelligent thinking and open-mindedness, the case is otherwise with Hong Kong racists who detest Filipinos for the act of one man in the hostage-taking disaster last Monday, or mocks the Filipinos for being domestic helpers because of some 200 thousand workers in the former British colony. Or it could be that these racists are not aware that there is almost no difference between them and hostage takers? So it appears. Let us count the similarities:

1. Racists and hostage-takers are both morons. To drive a point, they usually commit the fallacy of hasty generalization. They would easily think that the act of one is the act of all. Manila hostage taker Rolando Mendoza, for instance, thought that if he kills his hostages, he can get even with those he thinks have wronged him. Similarly, Hong Kong racists think that since Mendoza is a Filipino, and that he is a hostage taker, then Filipinos are all hostage takers. If that is the case, can we say that Lucio Tan, the Gokongweis and other Chinese-blooded Filipino citizens are also hostage takers? Or shall we say that since copyright piracy is frequent in China and that Hongkong is in China, we shall charge all Hong Kong nationals for violations of copyright laws?
2. Racists and hostage-takers are short-sighted. They only look at the present and do not consider the implications of their actions. Hostage-taker Mendoza died. If there will be no domestic helpers in Hongkong, will the life of its citizens be convenient also? Well, we can excuse this short-sightedness. Racists and hostage-takers are both morons anyway. 
3. Aside from intellectual (and/or logic) deficiency, they both suffer from psychological problems. If their fellows -- that is, the radical perfectionists and the puritan cults -- are to be consulted, these flukes of the civilized world (hostage-takers and racists) will be recommended for extermination. But of course, doing so is another act of barbaric act. 
4. Racists and hostage-takers use other people to advance their cause. Hostage-taker Mendoza, for instance, used a bus-load of people to air his grievance while Hong Kong racists tried to trample on the dignity and even rights of the Filipinos just to show that they are a more superior race. 
5. Racists and hostage-takers are both barbaric and uncivillized. They both think that they still live in the primitive era. They forgot that the world has changed and that there are rules to deal with everything.
6. To some extent, they both use violence. Hostage-taker Mendoza's actions describes this best. On the part of the racists, these include the reports of house-help beating to the point of killing as what happened to the Jews during Hitler's era.

So, what is the difference between hostage-takers and racists? It's only the name, my friend.

Jinggoy on HK wrath: No big deal

At around 5 PM Thursday, Senator Jinggoy Estrada suffered China's wrath when his regular passport was thrown at him after it had been marked by a Hong Kong immigration officer. Jinggoy said the passport-throwing incident could have been triggered by the Manila hostage taking crisis last August 23 that killed eight Hong Kong nationals.

In a phone interview, however, the senator claimed that, “It was no big deal. I understand them.” The Inquirer added that Jinggoy also "opted not to make an issue out of the incident, acknowledging that the Chinese were still angered over the 11-hour hostage drama that had apparently exposed police inefficiency."

Tama naman si Jinggoy sa puntong huwag nang manggatong at huwag nang palakihin ang issue... pero teka. Di ba ang pagbabalita sa nangyari, lalo na sa media, ay pagpapalaki ng isyu? Ano ba talaga, Senator: Papalakihin ang isyu o hindi? Bakit niyo ibinalita? O baka na major major mistake din kayo sa di niyo alam na sinasabi ninyo?

Nakooowwww!!!!

Dirty Harry called the shots

According to Inquirer:

It was “Dirty Harry” who called the shots in Monday’s bungled hostage drama that left eight Chinese tourists dead, their captor riddled with bullets and the Philippine image overseas severely tarnished.

Chief Supt. Rodolfo Magtibay, who has been relieved as head of the Manila Police District, said Thursday during a nationally televised Senate hearing that Mayor Alfredo Lim led the crisis committee that handled Monday’s standoff.

Kaya pala mukhang wild, wild west ang resulta. If this is true, will he take responsibility? Kasama rin kaya siya sa sinasabi ni Pnoy na: May mananagot?

Aminiiiinnn!!!!

Lagman to PNoy: Ask Robredo ,others to resign or get axed

This morning at the GMA-7's Unang Hirit program, Albay Congressman Edcel Lagman calls on President Noynoy Aquino to axe DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo and other top ranking officials if they will not resign for the fiasco committed during the Manila Hostage Crisis staged by Capt. Rolando Mendoza.

Sabi ni Lagman, si Frisco Nilo nga sinibak sa kapalpakan sa PAG-ASA, bakit hindi rin sibakin sa puwesto si Robredo at iba pang mataas na opisyal sa PNP? Dagdag ni Lagman, andun naman si Robredo sa lugar kung saan nangyayari ang hostage-taking, bakit di niya pinigilan ang live video feed nang pag-aresto sa kapatid ni Mendoza. Kaya dapat sa kanya, mag-resign din.

Pero dapat nga bang mag-resign si Robredo? Si J.A. Carizo ng Biklish ay may sinulat na sagot at ito ay mga sumusunod:

But while Lagman is right that heads should fall, maybe we should also look into the extent of control of those he wished to resign or get axed. If we do not establish standards, then maybe we can include the members of the Congress especially the senior members like him for failure to pass the necessary budget for the gears and training of the members of the police force.

We should also impeach the Ombudsman for its pace on acting resolutions is one of the complaints of the hostage-taker. The impeachment is not anymore in the realm of the executive but on the legislative department and that means the Congress where he, Lagman, is a member.

We should also remove the members of the Congress, including him, as they failed to strictly ensure that laws with appropriate remedies are available to those who feel wronged like Mendoza. Add to this the lack of appropriate laws on social services like education as had been the subject of the 2007 Manila Hostage Drama perpetrated by Jun Ducat.

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.

Jackie Chan and the Manila Hostage Crisis

The Philippines is now back in the limelight. This is courtesy of the Manila hostage drama and the "major major mistake" of Maria Venus Raj which are the top searches in the Internet.

To further increase the intensity of the Philippines popularity and/or infamy, action superstar Jackie Chan issued on twitter a statement on the disaster created by Capt. Rolando Mendoza in the Quirino Grandstand hostage-taking. According to the superstar, "I come back to hk & I hear terrible news about what happened in filippines (sic)."

Magsaya na lang tayo at kahit si Jackie Chan ay nakakaintindi. He added, "this kind of things always happen around the world. It happened to hk's people, the whole hk is talking about it. Its really sad. HK is a nation built by a lot of different people..don't worry! We do not hate!"

Pero sana para di na magkaroon pa ng hatred at wala ng sumunod pang hostage taking, gumalaw naman sana nang maayos at mabilis ang hustisya. If a police could complain on the turtle-paced justice system, lalo na siguro ang mga ordinaryong tao.