The prestigious University of Asia and Pacific (UA&P) has agreed to make the Davao City's tourism and agricultural development plan, city Mayor Sara Duterte said.

Duterte went to Manila last week along with City Promotions and Investment Office officer in charge Jason Magnaye and City Tourism Officer Giovanni Rizal Aportadera where they got to meet the university president.

"The one who talked to us was the president (of the university) and we have agreed on what will be the backbone of our for agri and tourism plans for the city," Duterte said in an interview at the Central 911 office along Ponciano St.

While she did not name the president, the UA&P president is listed as Jose Maria Mariano.

Duterte said the city's tourism master plan would serve as the backbone for future projects.

"Mao 'to ang foundation ang unsa to among naistoryahan. Kumbaga gi-klaro namo kung asa ta padulong (What we talked about in Manila was the foundation of all our programs, we made our directions clear to them) on whether we would want to promote the city as an eco-tourism site, adventure, retirement destination, things like that," Duterte said.

Duterte said this is a welcome development as she said the city and the private sector need to collaborate more.

"Sa karon man gud ang private sector naa silay operation, ang LGU musulod lang kung Kadayawan. Kung naa na tay master plan sundon na lang nato na tanan ug ang kwarta gamiton nato para masunod ang masterplan (What's happening now is the private sector has their own operations and the local government unit comes in only when it's Kadayawan. If we have a masterplan then we would all follow that and we would be using the money to follow that masterplan)," Duterte said.

Duterte, however, did not give specifics on what would be the projects under the city's partnership with the UA&P.

"Sa karon wala pa pud nahisgutan ang budget (For now the budget has also not been discussed). They will be coming here in the city," Duterte said.

The mayor also met with interested investors for a Davao City Convention Center but said no commitment was made.

"Niana sila nga kung willing ba daw ang local government nga mag-invest pud. Ana ko nga willing ta pero dili nato kaya nga kita lang. Wala pay naistoryahan gyud nga final. (They asked whether the city is willing to invest and I said we are but we cannot do it alone. Nothing final has been discussed)," she said.

“Noynoy Aquino is using up political capital far more expeditiously and dangerously than Barrack Obama, probably the most popular president of America... Beijing refused to receive a high-level delegation led by Vice President Jejomar Binay and was viewed by many HK nationals as another slur by the Aquino administration... Then the SMILE; this was perhaps Aquino’s worst PR screw-up. At a time when both nations were in a state of mourning, Aquino’s jovial demeanour was callous and nauseating. “I felt like smashing the TV when I saw him smile and smile,” wrote a Hong Kong resident.”

Presidency not walk in the park!

By now, President Benigno S. Aquino 3rd knows that the presidency is not a walk in the park just because he has been elected with one of the best electoral mandates in Philippine history.

His predecessor, Gloria Arroyo once described to me that the Philippine presidency is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. She ended nine years with a 6.1 percent average GDP growth, the best among five presidents. She doubled per capita income. She delivered–on the economy. Yet today, she is the most hated president in history.

Noynoy Aquino is using up political capital far more expeditiously and dangerously than Barrack Obama, probably the most popular president of America. Today, after 20 months, less than half of Americans like and approve of Obama’s performance. And Obama is a chief executive with plenty of presidential gravitas.

Aquino’s presidential issuances have been questioned before the Supreme Court. They include the order to retain or fire government managers appointed by President Arroyo just before she left office and his order to create the Truth Commission. Their constitutionality is being decided by a high court chaired by someone he hated to be chief justice, Renato Corona.

Corona had been publicly humiliated a number of times by Aquino who questioned his legitimacy as the highest magistrate of the land and whom he barely acknowledged in at least two very public events, including the June 30 presidential inaugural.

Aquino also questioned the integrity of Philippine economic statistics. So when the economy grew by 7.9 percent in the second quarter or by 7.85 percent in the first half, the best semestral growth in 22 years, he couldn’t crow about it.

Yet, if there is any gain Aquino could mention, it is on the economic front. Business and consumer confidence surged to their peak after his election.

Outside of the economy, signs are there for an uncontrollable downhill ride.

The trigger was the August 23 early evening murder of eight tourists from Hong Kong when a disgruntled and dismissed Manila police captain hijacked a tourist bus with 24 passengers, 21 of them tourists, and demanded his restatement plus payment of P1 million in retirement benefit. Police botched a rescue attempt.

During the ten hours the bus was parked in front of Manila’s historic Rizal Park Grandstand and authorities were negotiating a deal with the hostage taker, Rolando Mendoza, the government had two very solid options: one, cut him down by sniper fire (there were at least two occasions for a sure shot when he stood at the door of the bus for everyone to see), and two, give in to his demands in exchange for the release of his hostages unharmed.

After all, what is P1 million? Mendoza was willing to negotiate. He even released nine of his 24 hostages. Government bureaucrats routinely steal up to 40 percent of the national budget, now at P1.5 trillion. And what is the reputation of a police officer with a checkered career compared to the lives of 24 innocent civilians, 21 of whom nationals of the fourth largest—and very fastgrowing—source of foreign tourists?By some fatal misjudgment or crucial failure of leadership, neither of the options was taken.

The result was the carnage of tourists on an unprecedented scale, thanks to the incompetence of a platoon of so-called SWAT policemen assaulting the bus with empty tear gas canisters, a heavier than usual sledge hammer and without gasmasks, without bullet-proof vests, and without high-powered firearms. The world watched everything on live television. Mercifully, Mendoza was finally killed by sniper fire but not before he sprayed some 58 armalite bullets on his helpless victims.

The Inquirer editorialized President Aquino’s invisibility during the critical hours. It shows how badly served he is by his advisers, the influential daily sneered.Hong Kong placed the Philippines on a travel black list. China, the biggest source of cheap imports, cheap capital and among the best technology in the world, is mad.

Beijing refused to receive a high-level delegation led by Vice President Jejomar Binay and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo being formed by Aquino to convey his government regrets about the incident. Two Chinese Ramon Magsaysay awardees suddenly couldn’t come for the awards night in Manila. The Chinese envoy didn’t show up at the National Heroes Day rites. The Chinese government berated the administration for allowing the Philippine flag to be draped on the casket of Mendoza. The Chinese also didn’t like the way Aquino smiled at his midnight press conference almost four hours after the killings. And they want an earnest and official apology from him.

Sheepishly, Aquino ordered a thorough probe and the formation of a well-trained, well-equipped elite task force to handle future crises like hostage-taking. He publicly apologized to the Chinese, but not formally.

After two months, Aquino’s is suddenly a wounded presidency. Can he recover? Yes, of course. But he must take the right steps. What these are, he can ask his advisers. BY TONY LOPEZ

A British billionaire has offered $1 million to the first person who manages to streak naked in front of Barack Obama. Alki David, ranked 45th in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £1.15 billion, made the pledge as part of a publicity stunt for a new website.

The Nigerian born businessman, 42, set up the Battlecam site, which offers people thousands of pounds if they perform, and video, crazy stunts live through the site.

Mr Alki, who is also an actor, initially offered $100,000 to the person who successfully streaked in front of the US President, reports the Daily Telegraph.

But now he has raised the stakes to $1 million (£639,000) after being told the prize money was "not enough" to warrant such a daring prank.

The only catch is the person has to have the website's name scrawled across their stomach.

Mr Alki dismissed suggestions that people would be offended by the prank and defended himself against claims he was creating a security risk for the President.

"I have thought about the Secret Service taking me aside and pulling me behind the White House bicycle shed but this is all in good fun," he said.

"I find most Americans are able to laugh at themselves. It is not as if there are any negative intentions. It is just a silly, outrageous prank which is not going to hurt anyone."

NAIVE BLOGGERS FUELING RACIAL TENSION

Dan Mariano writes that despite the outpouring of sympathy in the Philippines for the hostage-taking victims and their families, some quarters have pounced on the August 23 tragedy to pursue their racist agenda.

According to these bigots, ALL Filipinos must be held responsible for the death of the eight Chinese tourists.

In apparent response to these xenophobic reactions, the following article titled “Parallels: Tiananmen Square and Luneta” has been circulating in the Internet. Portions of the article read as follows:

“On August 19, 2005, Emmanuel ‘Bong’ Madrigal, a Manila-based Filipino executive of the multinational Shell, was visiting Beijing on vacation with his wife Vivian, his daughter Regina Mia, and two younger daughters. That day, they rode a tourist bus to Tiananmen Square, the heart of the capitol. Upon arriving at the square, Emmanuel Madrigal was the first to descend from the bus, followed by Vivian and Regina Mia. A Chinese man wielding a scythe—in some reports it was described as a sword—suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hacked Emmanuel across his torso.

He died on the spot. The man also attacked and seriously wounded Vivian. He then slashed at and killed Regina Mia. By this time, bystanders were trying to subdue the man, and Vivian shouted to her two other daughters to get away and save themselves. Somehow the girls made their way back to the hotel. Vivian was brought to a Beijing hospital, where she died several days later of her injuries.

“An Associated Press report still circulating on the internet states that the killer was Wang Gongzuo, 25, a farmer from eastern China’s Jiangsu province. He was sentenced to death for the murder of the Madrigals and executed a few weeks later, in September. The AP report states:

Wang’s motive for killing the two is unclear. After the incident occurred the Beijing Morning Post reported that he had wanted to ‘affect society using extreme actions,’ but didn’t elaborate.

“Reflect on the parallels. A family of vacationers on a tourist bus: the Leungs and the Madrigals. A killer out to ‘affect society using extreme actions’: Mendoza and Wang. A massacre in a public place of symbolic significance . . . In both incidents, the state failed miserably in protecting innocent tourists.“

And there the parallels end. President Aquino has apologized to the families of Mendoza’s victims and conveyed his sorrow to the people of Hong Kong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang, and Ambassador Lin Jian Chao. The Philippine National Police acknowledge that they botched matters beyond comprehension. Philippine legislators, ahead of their Hong Kong counterparts, called for a full investigation. Philippine media organizations are looking to their own culpability in the affair. And masses of ordinary Filipinos, on TV, radio, print, and the Internet, are expressing collective horror, remorse and pity over the terrible fate of the innocent tourists, and bow their heads in shame before the Hong Kong people’s sorrow and anger. That is how it should be, that is only right.

“But, to this day, five years after it happened, there is no public record of any Chinese official acknowledging the tourist killings in Tiananmen Square and apologizing to the Madrigals, much less the Filipino people, for the murder of Emmanuel, Regina Mia and Vivian . . .

”A reader subsequently supplied the following corrections to the original account:

“Vivian was hospitalized but survived the attack. It was their daughter Mia who died in the hospital. I heard some reports that she was doing ok but had a bad reaction to a blood transfusion.

“Also, I don’t think they were riding a tourist bus. As far as I can remember, they were seasoned travelers so that they were just touring China on their own, not with a tour group.

“I think there was some anger with the Japanese at the time and this crazed guy mistook Bong for a Japanese.”

Hackers were able to rip through the government Philippine Information Agency website (www.pia.gov.ph). The website on Sunday showed a black screen with the Chinese flag on top. It also showed the identity of the hacker, who introduced himself as “Hacked by 7z1.”

The website further showed the words “black matrix team” and includes an email address of 0x.oday@Gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

At press time, the state public information website has not been restored.

This was not the first time that a government website was hacked touting the Chinese flag.

Earlier, the regional office of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Bulacan, north of Manila, also reportedly suffered from a similar attack.

The hacking of the PIA website came in the wake of the still brittle relationship between the Philippines and Hong Kong, nearly a week after dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza held hostage mostly Chinese tourists from Hong Kong at the Quirino Grandstand of Rizal Park.

Eight of the foreign visitors were killed by Mendoza, according to results of initial investigations.

The disgraced lawman, the same probes said, was killed by police sniper fire.

Reports had said that Mendoza went on a shooting rampage when his brother Gregorio, a policeman, was arrested by police.

The bloody ending to the hostage-taking earned the ire of many in Hong Kong, including its Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who told media that he was unable to reach President Benigno Aquino 3rd by phone at the height of the siege.

President Aquino had apologized to Tsang for the bloody incident but top Malacañang official Herminio Coloma denied Tsang’s claim, saying that Mr. Aquino was available throughout the nearly 12-hour hostage drama.

Hackers testing the government website is not new, as late last year, the Department of Health website showed graphic sex images.

Clad in her working clothes—an ensemble of rugged pants, cotton shirt and detachable sleeves—Chona Acope, 40, pedals her way through the daily burden of her chosen toil. As a pedicab driver, her sunburned skin has witnessed how her feminine stature endures muscle strain from hours of fetching students, in exchange for P200 in daily income.

She has no permanent home, no well-paying job and no television set for entertainment. Despite the stress and exhaustion of her daily grind, she shares her life story with ease through her nightly form of relaxation: Facebook.

“I usually spend an hour or two Facebook-ing,” Acope confessed in Filipino to The Manila Times.

Four months ago, a friend introduced the pedicab driver to the online crowd of social networking sites, chat rooms and e-mail.

After learning the basics of computer operation and online access, Acope became a habitué of a P12-per-hour computer rental store to go online and chat with foreign friends and long-lost relatives.

Hungry but connected - According to a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS), 21.1 percent of Filipino families or almost 4 million households experienced involuntary hunger during the past three months.

Another SWS survey conducted in March, meanwhile, revealed that 38 percent of Metro Manila households consider themselves poor.

Acoe agrees that she belongs to the urban poor majority.

But one might wonder why Acope allots a portion of her hard-earned bucks for Facebook when she could not even afford decent shelter.

“Kahit mahirap lang kami, pwede rin naman kami mag-relax. [Even if we are poor, we also have the right to relax],” she said.

Professor Bobi Luciano, a sociologist teaching at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, said that there are underlying reasons for this reality.

“Of course, we still have to consider social class. Not everybody has access to Internet, not everybody have their own computer at home. Though there are computer rentals, say at P10 per hour, still that’s P10. But do they have money to buy food? Syempre agrabyado palagi yung developing countries in terms of access. [Of course, developing countries are still deprived in terms of access to the Internet],” he added.

Ironically, according to the blog of Nick Burcher (nickburcher.com), Global Head of Social Media and Digital Innovation, ZenithOptimedia, the Philippines ranked 8th among countries with the most Facebook users (8,387,560 users) as of July 2010.

Luciano said that people find Facebook and the Internet a source of entertainment.

He, however, fears that while underprivileged users find joy in becoming one with the online crowd, they might fail to attend to their basic needs first.

Instead of finding ways to have food or shelter, Luciano said, they just entertain themselves.

But he added that he cannot blame the likes of Acope.

“Even [Karl] Marx said, ‘We need illusions in this illusory world.’ If the world can’t provide you with heavenly things, then at least dream about it, or create an illusion that you have it. In the Internet, they that say the rich and the poor suddenly become equal. That is illusion and we are happy with that,” Luciano said.

Online happiness - Luciano cited easier communication as the biggest advantage of Facebook and new digital technologies.

Before, searching for the Black-American father of Acope’s 17-year-old son was a hopeless case.

But through her friend’s advice, she keyed in the name of the father in Facebook’s Find People search engine. After sifting through several “Keith Washingtons,” she found the profile picture of her past love.

Her son has since been communicating with his father, who is based in Washington, D.C.

“I told him to take my son to his county because he has been influenced by friends into addiction,” Acope said. “But he asked me why I hadn’t told him about it earlier. He could have taken my son with him before.”

Now married to a security guard with whom she has a six year-old son, Acope said that she has also found friends and contacts from foreign lands through chat rooms.

“I have a foreigner chat mate who is an engineer in Qatar. Through Facebook chat, I was able to share the way we live here in the Philippines. I told him I am poor and that my family and I sleep inside jeepneys at night because we don’t have our own house. He [the Qatari chat mate] did not believe me, that’s why I took pictures and sent it to him,” she said, pointing to laminated photos hanging inside her pedicab.

When asked whether her husband is aware of the Qatari friend, she managed a nervous laughter, which leads to another story.

“Actually, the Qatari has also admitted love for me through chat, asking me to be his ‘Madam.’ He doesn’t know I’m married, I told him I got separated from my husband. If he can love my sons more than he can love me, I’m willing to be his wife. Bahala na [Let fate decide],” Acope said, adding that her husband deserves a better woman.

Luciano said that he has nothing against digital technology but added, “Not to be pessimistic but at the rate we’re going, we’re losing track of that sense of direction.”

Acope said that she would continue to use Facebook regardless of her sad plight.

After all, whenever she’s online, she explained, she’s happy.

It also helps her, the pedicab driver said, endure the daily grind of pedaling her way to meager earnings.

" Across the Pasig River in Malacañang, the turmoil and the chaos continue, days after the smoke of gunfire cleared in Rizal Park. And with three Cabinet members directly in charge of media relations saying contradictory things about what the President knew, when he knew it and what he did and didn’t do during the crisis, you’d think maybe they still need Fred Lim (the old version) over there, too.

First, we hear from Secretaries Edwin Lacierda and Ricky Carandang that the President was only unable to receive the repeated calls of Hong Kong administrator Donald Tsang Yam-kuen because Aquino was in a meeting. Tsang, who was reported by the South China Morning Post to be near tears when he went on television after failing to reach the Philippine president, said the first thing Aquino told him when they finally talked late Monday night was “sorry.”

Aquino told Tsang he could not take any calls because he was busy monitoring the situation and commanding the people on the ground. (And all the while, I thought Lim was the ground commander.)

Carandang told the Post that an aide of Aquino took the call from Tsang’s own aide and that Carandang then called the Department of Foreign Affairs to contact Tsang in Hong Kong. After repeated attempts to call the DFA, Carandang apparently—and inexplicably—gave up.
Aquino himself said during a press briefing after the crisis that he did not want to “micro-manage” the situation and that he had been meeting officials about the dengue fever outbreak and budget preparation matters, among other things. Why he or anyone in his official family never gave a thought to calling Tsang or his people in Hong Kong—even before they themselves tried to reach the President—is unknown.

It actually gets worse. The third media secretary, Herminio Coloma, said yesterday that he found it “unbelievable” that Tsang had called up Aquino and had not been put through. “That is unbelievable because the President is accessible all the time,” Coloma told ABS-CBN.
Of course, no one probably thought to tell Coloma that his boss and his Cabinet colleagues already admitted earlier that Tsang had indeed called. And perhaps Coloma was blissfully unaware that he was implying that he was accusing Tsang of lying about trying to get in touch with the President.

Coloma actually completed a grand slam of sorts by declaring on the same TV program that the botched assault was also the fault of the previous Arroyo administration. “We just inherited the [current] state of the Philippine National Police,’’ he said, to explain his addition of the previous administration to the ever-lengthening list of suspects in the bloody fiasco.

Over in cyberspace, meanwhile, Noynoy Aquino fan pages were being taken down after being flooded with criticism concerning the President’s inaction during the crisis. The President’s own official Facebook page was censored by its administrators in his name, to remove unflattering and “below the belt” comments.

Whatever happened to the vow of transparent governance and the use of “new media” like the Internet for direct and interactive feedback between the Palace and the people? Apparently, that promise got sledgehammered and thrown under the tourist bus at the Luneta, as well.
And this is merely the first “major major” crisis to rock the Aquino administration, something that was precipitated by the drastic action taken by just one man. One wonders how this government would react to a really big crisis—and what the people who have no love for this administration are already planning to test its questionable mettle.

Amateur hour has been extended into a major major week, indeed.” By: Jojo Robles

“How was Oakwood—a far more challenging crisis than one gunman in a bus in the middle of a wide avenue—contained and resolved after 18 hours, from the first TV report of the apartment takeover at two in the morning of July 27, 2003, until the last mutineers left for Fort Bonifacio on army trucks past nine that Sunday night?”

One of the books that came out of nine and a half years of the Arroyo Administration is Beating the Odds, co-authored by two former Cabinet members, longtime UP political science professor Dr. Rene Velasco and this writer, who planned and documented top-level deliberations as Secretary of the Cabinet in 2001-08.

The 320-page volume (P400 at Fully Booked and PowerBooks, for those interested) chronicles how President Gloria Arroyo and her key officials successfully handled six major crises in the first half of her administration: terrorism, the Mindanao conflict, narcotics, the SARS epidemic, the Oakwood Mutiny, and the budget deficit.

Of particular relevance to Monday’s hostage taking is the fifth chapter on Oakwood, when 300 heavily armed soldiers took over and ringed with explosives the high-rise luxury apartments in Makati’s shopping complex. The troops were led by the Magdalo group of officers, including then Navy lieutenant and now detained senator Antonio Trillanes, who alleged anomalies and demanded reforms in the military.

How was Oakwood—a far more challenging crisis than one gunman in a bus in the middle of a wide avenue—contained and resolved after 18 hours, from the first TV report of the apartment takeover at two in the morning of July 27, 2003, until the last mutineers left for Fort Bonifacio on army trucks past nine that Sunday night?

No blood was shed or shots fired. None of the apartment residents, including the Australian ambassador, were harmed. Though right in the midst of preparations for the President’s State of the Nation Address the very next day, Palace officials, including Sec. Velasco, directly handled intensely protracted but eventually productive surrender talks with the Magdalo group.

Totally calm and in full command of the situation, President Arroyo met with top security officials at Malacanang soon after intelligence reports of unauthorized troop movement. Her first order: contain the mutiny. Clear the crisis area of innocents who might be caught in a possible crossfire.

Government forces sealed off the Makati business district, setting up command on the ground floor of Hotel Inter-Continental, across the parking lot from Oakwood. Guests and residents of nearby hotels and apartments were evacuated; by 10 a.m. Intercon was cleared of occupants, supervised by Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon.

The Philippine National Police parked buses and military vehicles at major roads into Makati to stop Magdalo’s civilian sympathizers from joining them. Rallyists were also dispersed from the EDSA People Power Monument.

Next step: deny the mutineers a long standoff. The President set a 5 p.m. deadline for negotiating a peaceful resolution. There was much debate among the Cabinet before this decision, but she cut it short, conscious that the public were expecting word from their Commander-in-Chief.

At 9 a.m. Arroyo marched into the press briefing room and announced that the rebels had until 5 p.m. to stand down, surrender their weapons, and return to barracks. If they didn’t, she had given the Armed Forces Chief of Staff the authority to use reasonable force to dislodge and arrest the mutinous troops.

Next question: Should the government negotiate or just wait for Magdalo to comply with the ultimatum.
Some Cabinet members argued that bargaining would be a sign of weakness. But the President saw it as the best way to achieve a peaceful solution. Mediation would also help soften the rebels’ resolve.

At the recommendation of Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and Presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto Tiglao, the President dispatched former AFP chief Roy Cimatu, then head of the Middle East Preparedness Team, to lead a negotiation team. It also included Sec. Velasco, Tiglao’s deputy at the time, and Undersecretary Abraham Purugganan, who had expertise in past coup plots.

There was also concern that certain groups might exploit the standoff to destabilize the government. So the President issued Proclamation No. 427, drafted by Chief Presidential Counsel Avelino Cruz, Jr., declaring the whole nation under a state of rebellion. That mobilized the AFP and the PNP to quell any move against the state.

Accused by Local Government Secretary Jose Lina of conspiracy with Magdalo, Senator Gregorio Honasan sought to clear his name and offered to help negotiate with the mutineers. Velasco told the President of the senator’s proposal. While there were doubts about the offer, Arroyo approved it, hoping to harness every means to end the crisis peacefully. He sent Tiglao, Presidential Management Staff Head Silvestre Afable, Jr., and Housing Secretary Michael Defensor to accompany Honasan to Oakwood.

At 4.20 p.m. the Magdalo officers held a press conference airing their grievances with no word about the surrender deadline. The briefing was deliberately timed to ensure that the media was in Oakwood when the 5 p.m. deadline came. At the briefing, the rebel leaders stepped back from their earlier call for the President to step down: Trillanes claimed that they had staged a mutiny, not a coup to topple the government.

Negotiations between Magdalo rebels and Malacanang emissaries dragged on beyond the surrender deadline, and the Palace allowed it. Better to talk than to shoot. But at 9 pm., Gen. Cimatu reminded the negotiators that a decision had to be made. The rebel officers pushed for some concession, so they would have achieved something. Eventually, it was agreed that enlisted men who joined Magdalo should only be admonished, even as the mutiny leaders faced the full force of the Articles of War.

Thus, with the President in command, the Cabinet and the AFP brass mobilized, and seasoned top officials handling negotiations, Arroyo herself announced to the media that the Oakwood Mutiny ended in peace.
Containment, top-level control, and patient negotiation averted bloodshed and affirmed law and order in the land. BY RICARDO SALUDO

With the recent hostage crisis still fresh in the minds of people in the Philippines and Hong Kong, one would expect most people to be in mourning. But visit the official Facebook fan page of President Benigno Aquino 3rd and you are in for a surprise.
Since Monday, when 25 mostly Chinese tourists were held inside a bus against their will, the fan page has been flooded with calls for sacking policemen and negotiators who had tried but failed to stop the hostage-taker from killing some of the captives.

Other “fans” demanded his resignation, peppering such with expletives.

“Shame on you and your government. Tender your resignation now,” wrote a Hong Kong resident.
Other remarks berated Filipinos, with some curses written in Chinese.

As Zhiyuan Lu, another Hong Kong resident, put it, “[President Aquino’s] page is already cracked down as a battlefield of Hong Kong people and Filipinos.”

Tensions flared up even more when some Filipinos took pictures of their friends with the bus that had carried the 25 tourists as backdrop—the locals were all smiling.

One picture in Facebook showed a set of white-clad Filipino students posing, with the Hong Thai bus used in the hostage-taking again as “prop.”
Posted around midnight of August 24, it incensed Hong Kongers and Filipinos.

“This is your way of showing respect? Taking a photo in front of the catastrophe? Is this really fun?” asked Stephanie Tsang, still another resident of Hong Kong.

She swore at the President, with many replies from Filipinos in Tagalog.

A retort in the same thread by yet another resident from Hong Kong said, “No one could answer you. Although I believe that most [Filipinos] respect the victims, many [others] are doing things to hurt those [who] already [had] hard feelings because of this tragedy.”

Yet another picture that was posted on the Mr. Aquino’s fan page was that of five policemen, four of whom were posing with much gusto and an odd sense of triumph on their faces—right in front of the bus. The fifth policeman was taking their picture.

It was a Filipino, Noel Ducanes, who posted this picture on the President’s fan page, asking, “What can you say about this Mr. President? Nakakahiya ang mga policemen sa Philippines ‘di po ba [Philippine policemen are to be ashamed of, don’t you think?]”

A more sober, but nevertheless angry poster on Mr. Aquino’s fan page mentioned that she was writing to express her anger for the “unbelievable actions” on the evening of August 23.

Head must roll

The President, according to a report from Agence France-Presse on Wednesday, called for the Facebook bashings to stop, while his administration was preparing to send a delegation to Hong Kong to present the official government side on the matter.

There, however, were also some sober comments from Filipinos that called for justice amid arguments tossed about.
“[President Aquino] must do something. Heads must roll,” poster Nancy Bato said.

“The Quirino Grandstand should be treated with high respect since the new President took his oath of office. I would think that [Mr. Aquino] could have stopped the bloodshed in the hostage crisis,” Eman Mendoza said.

In other pages titled “We Pray For The Victims Of Quirino Grandstand Hostage-Taking,” and “Hong Kong, Our apology for what happened,” more and more Filipinos are showing how much they regret what happened and are saying sorry for August 23.

“Would some people in the Philippines offer some flowers at the site?” one user asked. “I would rather see pictures of that rather than seeing people posing with the tourist bus as a background for picture-taking.”

But some Hong Kong residents are also calling for peace.

“Please don’t feel bad about some offensive messages. Your sincerity & concern will be for sure highly appreciated & understood by us! Don’t feel guilty at all. Again, it’s not your fault!” one resident said. Alphonsus Luigi E. Alfonso

“Whatever other people say, in the final analysis, the greater responsibility belonged to the POLICE who shocked, not just the nation, but also the entire world, with their shameful display of appalling ineptitude. Police commanders, for instance, could have secured the entire area and dissuaded the media from conducting live broadcasts of the hostage-taking. They did not. For some reason, they either were reluctant to offend the media or had no idea that the media’s live reports were giving Mendoza a significant tactical advantage.”

At the height of the hostage-taking incident at the Luneta on Monday evening, I texted the anchor of a TV news program: “Mendoza is obviously able to monitor media reports. It probably is not right that the movements of the SWAT team are being broadcast live.”

I did not get a reply right away as the anchor was still on the air, directing traffic amid a flurry of on-the-spot reports from the network’s news crews around the tourist bus seized by dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza.

Hours later, after the crisis had reached its gruesome climax, I finally got this reply: “I know what you mean! It turns out there is a TV inside the bus.”

I am pretty sure many other broadcast journalists sensed that something was wrong about the live coverage of the ongoing hostage situation. Unfortunately, most of them got caught up in the frenzy of unfolding events—and were unable to help calm things, much less themselves down.

In fact, not a few viewers blame the live TV—as well as radio—coverage for agitating the hostage-taker.

Throughout much of the hostage-taking, there were indications that the incident was on its way to being resolved peaceably in the end. Earlier that afternoon Mendoza had already released several of his hostages. His immediate demands for diesel fuel and food were met. There was what looked like constant communication between him and the hostage-scene negotiators.

All that quickly changed moments after Mendoza’s brother and other relatives created a scene in front the Luneta police substation. Their tantrum and the cops’ clumsy handling of what should have been a simple arrest were aired live on radio and TV. Soon afterward, gunshots began to ring out from inside the bus.
Mendoza’s fragile mental state had reached breaking point—and all hell broke loose.

Not one of the major networks was able to resist the temptation of bringing the news in all its gory detail to their viewers as it happened. I was flicking the TV remote control and noted that ABS-CBN and GMA—along with their subsidiary channels, ANC, Tele-Radyo, Net21 and Q—as well as ABC5 and even the government channel were covering the hostage crisis in the same breathless and apparently unthinking manner.

They all broadcasted police operations around the tourist bus, including attempts by SWAT teams to approach it from behind. It was bad enough that Mendoza had relatives near or at the scene who were evidently able to communicate with him via cell phone. The live radio and TV coverage ensured that he knew what counter-measures to take as the authorities tried to close in on him.

Mendoza himself reportedly had undergone some SWAT training and was evidently prepared for what commando troops call CQB, or close-quarters battle.

For instance, it was no accident that he chose the wide avenue in front of the Quirino Grandstand, which gave him a clear, unimpeded 360-degree view of what was going on in the immediate perimeter of the bus. That way he could deny the SWAT team the element of surprise.

In the final analysis, however, the greater responsibility belonged to the Manila and NCR police who shocked, not just the nation, but also the entire world, with their shameful display of appalling ineptitude.

Police commanders, for instance, could have secured the entire area and dissuaded the media from conducting live broadcasts of the hostage-taking. They did not. For some reason, they either were reluctant to offend the media or had no idea that the media’s live reports were giving Mendoza a significant tactical advantage.

Even after Mendoza had already been “neutralized” the police were still unable to establish order in and around the bus. For several minutes, for instance, ABC5 showed the corpse of Mendoza as it was slumped out of what remained of the tourist bus’s main door—with what looked globs of his brain spilling on the pavement.

Worse, media crews and kibit-zers got in the way of paramedics and other emergency responders who were trying desperately to save some of the hostages who were found to be still alive.

Even while forensic investigators were gathering evidence inside the bus at least one reporter was allowed to hop in and deliver his spiel on camera right in the middle of the crime scene.

Many lessons ought to be learned by both the authorities and the media from the Luneta bloodbath.
Similar incidents have occurred in the not-too-distant past, but nobody seems to have learned anything from them. Why should things be any different this time around?

The Hong Kong authorities are certainly correct in issuing the most extreme travel advisory on any of their constituents who may be foolish enough to be planning a trip to Manila.

We Filipinos know how dangerous a place is our country, and we should not invite foreigners to come and pay us a visit if we cannot ensure their safety.

As one Hong Kong friend of mine put: It was bad enough that I have contend with crooked taxi drivers and gouging shop-owners every time I go your country. After what happened Monday, don’t expect me to go there any time soon.

For the moment, our government officials should stop saying that Monday’s carnage was “just an isolated incident.” The more urgent business is to make sure it never happens again—and to try to make amends to the victims and their families.

Care must be taken to not offend any further survivors as well as the fatalities’ relatives, friends and associates in Hong Kong who were victimized, not just by Mendoza, but also by the incompetent police and the hysterical media.

Depicting the Luneta carnage as “just an isolated incident” is not going to make their grief any more bearable. By Dan Mariano