Monday, August 23, 2010

Hostage Drama in Manila

Is it right to take the life of others for the injustices that you perceived you experienced? Desperate times calls for desperate actions but is taking lives always the answer?

At around 10 in the morning Manila time, an ex-cop flagged down a tour bus. In it are 22 people, children and elderly and mostly Hongkong nationals. The hostage-taker was identified as former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza. He was 55 years and was dismissed from service after being charged of extortion, robbery and grave threats. He demanded that he will be re-instated back to his job.

Just when we are starting anew as a country this thing blows up right in our faces. Watching it was both painful especially for the families of the hostages and extremely annoying. The hostage drama took more than 11 hours. This shows us the kind of preparedness our policemen have in handling this kind of situation. The officials are no where in sight when they are supposed be the one who should oversee the entire ordeal. People are on the street when they should be in their homes so as not to do any further damage (one bystander got shot of a stray bullet).

Furthermore, this news that is being watched all over the world was a big blow to tourism - the Security Bureau of Hongkong for one just give an advisory that no travel should be made in the Philippines due to severe threat, sounds like Iraq to me (http://www.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota/index.htm). If issues of terrorism is not enough to discourage travelers, this one will surely make them think twice.

I am a proud Filipino but acts of violence likes this disgusts me. This is but a barbaric act; taking innocent lives in broad daylight just to show the world that they have wronged you (provided that they did). Injustice, perceived or not, can be dealt better. Killing is NEVER the answer. Go to Iraq and fight the terrorist if you want to shot people. Killing those who can't fight back, innocent and weak will get you nowhere.

God bless Philippines!


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