Manila hostage crisis
| Manila Hostage Crisis | |
|---|---|
The bus where the hostages were held captive.
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| Location | Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines |
| Coordinates | 14°34′52″N 120°58′30″E / 14.58104°N 120.974922°ECoordinates: 14°34′52″N 120°58′30″E / 14.58104°N 120.974922°E |
| Date | Monday, August 23, 2010 10:00-21:00 (UTC+08:00) |
| Target | Hong Kong tourists on board a bus |
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Attack type
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Hostage crisis, siege, mass murder |
| Weapons | |
| Deaths | 9 (including the perpetrator) |
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Non-fatal injuries
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9 (7 hostages and 2 bystanders) |
| Perpetrator | Rolando Mendoza |
The Manila hostage crisis, officially known as the Rizal Park hostage-taking incident, occurred when a disgruntled former Philippine National Police officer named Rolando Mendoza hijacked a tourist bus in Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines on August 23, 2010. The bus carried 25 people: 20 tourists, a tour guide from Hong Kong, and four local Filipinos. Mendoza claimed that he had been unfairly dismissed from his job, and demanded a fair hearing to defend himself.
Negotiations (which were broadcast live on television and the internet) broke down dramatically about ten hours into the stand-off, when the police arrested Mendoza's brother and thus incited Mendoza to open fire. The bus driver managed to escape, and declared "Everyone is dead" before he was whisked away by policemen. Following a 90-minute gun battle, Mendoza and eight of the hostages were killed and several others injured.
The Philippine and Hong Kong governments conducted separate investigations into the incident. Both inquiries concluded that the Philippine officials' poor handling of the situation caused the eight hostages' deaths. The assault mounted by the Manila Police District (MPD), and the resulting shoot-out, have been widely criticized by pundits as "bungled" and "incompetent", and the Hong Kong Government has issued a "black" travel alert for the Philippines as a result of the affair.
Rolando Mendoza graduated from the Philippine College of Criminology with a degree in criminology, joined the Philippine National Police force as a patrolman, and rose to become senior inspector. He was decorated 17 times for bravery and honor, and was described by colleagues as hard-working and kind. In February 1986, Mendoza led a group of policemen that accosted a van carrying 13 crates full of money, which former Philippine president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos was apparently trying to smuggle out of the country. Mendoza and his team turned the shipment over to authorities, for which he was declared one of the Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines by the Jaycees International that year.
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Wikipedia