They don’t count EDITORIAL 09/06/2010

They don’t count

EDITORIAL

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09/06/2010
Noticeable in the ongoing testimonies to the fact-finding body formed to make heads or tails of the botched hostage rescue that took away the lives of eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker, are the many should haves and could haves coming from the police officials, all of which are usually given through the coaxing of the members of the probe body.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Leocadio Santiago said had it had been his decision, the police assault on the bus where dismissed Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza held the hostages would have been carried out by the elite Special Action Force (SAF) instead of the ill-equipped Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) force of the Manila Police District. Also negotiator Chief Insp. Romeo Salvador said had he been allowed, he could have grabbed Mendoza and ended the crisis with likely less trouble.

The members of the fact-finding body were obviously taking the path of getting a crystal-clear view on who really was to blame for the ugly turnout of the incident. And from testimonies given thus far, it seems that the group supposedly managing the crisis unfortunately was a mixed bag of spineless police officials, a politician who seems to believe that the crisis was a movie production and a former police general who can’t get past the temptation of taking over ground command during crisis situations.

Santiago’s and Salvador’s statements were giveaway proof that most of the police involved in ground operations on the hostage-taking incident were either not consulted or largely ignored by the so-called crisis management committee (CMC) that appeared to have disintegrated when it was most needed..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/