A Tough Lesson.

August 23, 2010 - A group of Chinese tourists from Hong Kong was held hostage by an ex-policeman, Capt. Rolando Mendoza. The short hand of the clock rounded twelve long hours as the negotiation turned into a tragic conclusion. Ten hostages were killed along with the hostage-taker on the assault by SWAT.

It was an event that put the reputation of the Philippines in shame. Even though there were survivors, which was thinly unexpected, it was still far from success. I've heard a lot responses from different perspective, most of them are either in a blame game or in the bandwagon that will let you forget, tara, let's-move-forward. Fact is lives have been lost and we are sorry for that but that would go meaningless if such scenario will occur again.

A lot of people are missing the point why a tragedy dawned in the first place. At some point I was wondering why would a well-decorated policeman gone crazy and engaged his life on a do-or-die situation, maybe injustice might have been the root. There must be something wrong which clearly trigger the anger of the hostage-taker. It should be looked upon and can't be neglected.

The aftermath was undeniably mortifying. The world watched the hostage drama unfolded and sure they've seen how a maul flew out of an assault team member's hand on a mission to break into the bus. Hence how a smooth negotiation turned to the roughest. The golden rule in a negotiation is never let the hostage-taker be provoked or agitated but surprisingly it was never observed. The police forgot that the tourist bus has a TV. The hostage-taker was provoked when he saw the arrest of his family which was uncalled for. It could have ended peacefully. The demand was about to be met until everything went to sour because of a mistake.

The SWAT unit had a hard time taking out Capt.Mendoza but no doubt, they had the hardest time getting rid of the bystanders who don't have a single firearm. The policemen on the scene became bystanders themselves. They failed to protect the crime scene which was sacred to investigation.

What I've mentioned are all facts. I've never claimed to be righteous but just being factual. People often cursed those who tell the truth, thus having the word just to move forward. But oppositely of what they believe they're being pessimistic by being a hypocrite. Wrongs should be pointed out. Being subjective to this matter won't get us anywhere instead by objectively correcting the wrongs is appropriate. The importance of learning from mistake should be emphasized. The stress of a lesson that would bring us forward is being forgotten. Let's not make this tragedy be a thing of the past, it's a tough lesson but certainly a lot of things for contemplation - it can make a whole difference in future time.