MORENO HAVING COFFEE, LIM TAKING DINNER WHEN SHOOTING STARTED
Heads of crisis body left at crucial period
By Benjamin B. Pulta
09/05/2010
Officials of the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) overseeing the conduct of operations to free hostages during the Aug. 23 crisis that ended in a bloodbath with the death of eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker left their posts to fill up on coffee and food as gunman, disgruntled policeman Rolando Mendoza, began shooting, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno told a fact-finding body on the incident.
Moreno told a public hearing he went to a nearby hotel to watch the crisis that left eight hostages dead play out on television while Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim had admitted Friday heading to a nearby restaurant.
Lim and Moreno were the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the body assigned to resolve the crisis.
The testimony by Moreno yesterday came after details emerged of a catalogue of mistakes by other police and government officials in the central Manila standoff.
Moreno and Lim said they left the crisis command post that was within walking distance of the bus at dusk, soon after the hostage-taker rejected a compromise deal and fired a warning shot.
“What was I supposed to do, go meet the bullets?” Moreno retorted at the hearing called by an inquiry board set up by President Aquino to investigate the fiasco..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100905hed1.html
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