Admits being incapable of handling crisis situations
Crisis body nixed shooting to save hostage taker’s life
By Benjamin B. Pulta
10/04/2010
Despite the many chances they had to shoot the hostage-taker when the snipers were given the clear opportunity to take him down, the police team decided against shooting a sacked colleague who hijacked a tourist bus because they wanted to “save” him along with his Hong Kong hostages, a probe body looking into the botched hostage rescue operations was informed by an administration official yesterday.
Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno admitted to several mistakes that led to eight of the Hong Kong tourists being killed during the chaotic and bloody end to the day-long standoff that played out live on global television.
“There were a lot of chances where we could (have taken) him down,” Puno told the inquiry.
However, he said the crisis management committee decided against ordering the snipers to shoot the hijacker, 55-year-old former Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza.
“The primary purpose there was to save everybody,” Puno said.
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101004hed1.html
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