After the “blame game” that happened wherein PAG-ASA official was terminated in his job due to wrong information regarding the typhoon Basyang which brought tremendous casualties in the country, next is where you see our president blamed the media for the coverage of the hostage taking which took place at the Quirino Grandstand last August 23, followed by the blaming of the PNP, and now, P-Noy just realized he has to take full responsibility for the hostage taking.
The hostage crisis took more or less 12 hours before the hostage taker was taken down by a sniper. The situation left eight Hong Kong tourists dead, and witnessed live in all parts of the world. During the crisis, even the slightest glimpse of P-Noy’s shadow was never seen and this causes a bad impression in most of the other nations.
President Aquino III has claimed full responsibility over the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) botched hostage rescue operations last week saying he has direct supervision over the police. The President’s admission was contrary to his earlier claim that Rico E. Puno, Interior undersecretary for peace and order, was directly in charge of the hostage rescue operations.
Clarifying Mr. Aquino’s statement, Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Herminio "Sonny" R. Coloma said the president is emphasizing the principle of accountability in taking full responsibility over the event.
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The Manila hostage taking was deemed as a “local crisis” even if the hostages were foreign nationals, Interior undersecretary Rico E. Puno said last Friday (Sept. 3) in front of the fact finding committee who investigates the police rescue operations done at Quirino Grandstand.
The very same day of the hostage crisis, Puno was informed of the incident four hours earlier before he flew to Cagayan de Oro City to attend an “official function”. He just let it happen for he thought that it was only a local crisis, for it was in the city of Manila and the hostage taker was a former Manila police.
As being asked by the president of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkater sa Pilipinas, Mr. Herman Basbano, Puno said that during the incident, the local crisis committee was in charge of the situation while the national crisis committee which he headed, was on “standby” in case the situation worsened. And their assessment of the situation was that the hostage taker was very cooperative, which made them think that the situation was bearable and can be handle by the police and no need for it to be considered as a national crisis.
Mr. Puno admittedly told Justice secretary Leila de Lima that he is not capable of handling hostage taking crisis, and was only verbally instructed by the president to oversee PNP.
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The woman behind on how Mendoza was brought to Quirino Grandstand appeared, Meliccia Gonzales, 65, a widower, claims to have been Mendoza’s “best friend”, drove him from Tanauan, Batangas to Manila, knowing that he would only turn over his service firearm, an M-16 rifle to the authorities, and that she did not know he would use it to hold people hostage. She said she became suspicious when she saw Mendoza wearing his police uniform, but Mendoza had told her he needed to be in uniform to avoid being pulled over because their car’s license plates were banned on the main roads on Mondays.
Gonzales, accompanied by her lawyer, surfaced at the National Bureau of Investigations’ main office in Manila last Tuesday afternoon to clear her name.
