The Quirino Grandstand Hostage Drama and What Happened After It

        The whole world held its breath when the 12-hour long Quirino Grandstand Hostage drama took place on Monday. The tragic event lead to the death of 8 Chinese tourists and the captor, dismissed ex-police officer Rolando Mendoza, and sent the rest of the hostages in critical stages on the hospital.

        The gruesome event raised violent reactions from the people of Hong Kong as well as endless criticism from China’s high ranking officials. All of the fingers are pointing into one direction: PNP’s lack of training when it comes to hostage taking. And people from Hong Kong are accusing the Philippine government as INCOMPETENT.

        The rescue operation staged by the policemen is undoubtedly poor, to put it mildly. And that is something the whole world saw. The performance of the policemen, not to mention the other uncontrolled elements resulted to the death of 8 Chinese tourist held captive and triggered different reactions from across the globe.

        Because of incident, the Hong Kong Government announced a ‘black’ tourist alert, discouraging people from Hong Kong to visit the country due to danger. This announcement is very sad since it can greatly affect tourism and livelihood in the Philippines since it can also affect other countries’ views with regards to visiting the country.

        The lives as well as the business of Filipinos living in Hong Kong may also be put to danger because of what happened. It is reported that one Filipina had been fired by her employer after the tragedy in Rizal’s shrine took place. High country officials are hoping that the lapse of the government may not affect Filipinos abroad for they are considered innocent of what occurred back home. But just to make sure, diplomats should be sent as early as possible to Hong Kong to talk things over and avoid similar situations.

        In honor of the victims who risked their lives in this tragic event, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III declared August 25, 2010 as the day of mourning. Earlier, Aquino talked to the different people from China to send his condolences to the victims’ families and swore to get to the bottom of this tragedy.

        What had happened, although how tragic it is, served as an eye-opener to the government that our policemen should undergo rigid training on how to respond to different situations, at the same time should have the equipments pertinent to their job. This is not the first time something like this ever happened. Yet, no improvement was seen from the last hostage drama. Unlucky for us now, other countries were able to experience of how notorious our policemen can be when it comes to rescue operations.

        This is a sad event. But a lot can still be learned from it. The PNP screwed up big time. But instead of pointing your fingers directly on them, it would be better if we just hold hands and deal with things more important first.