RP mourns for slain hostages
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
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MANILA – The Philippine flag will fly at half-staff Wednesday as President Benigno Aquino III declared a national day of mourning in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong.
Post your reaction to the Manila hostage crisis
Hong Kong government declared on Tuesday a day of mourning for the death of its nationals in a hostage stand-off in Manila in which a dismissed policeman armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol seized a busload of 21 Chinese tourists and four locals to demand his reinstatement on the force.
"These deaths are a great loss to the people of Hong Kong and the Philippines," Aquino stated in Proclamation No. 23 he signed on Tuesday.
Aquino, facing his first major crisis since taking office on June 30, instructed all public institutions in the country and embassies and consulates overseas to lower the Philippine flag to half-mast on Wednesday.
The national day of mourning for the hostage victims at the Quirino Grandstand will be observed yearly with simultaneous prayer vigils in various areas in the country.
Buddhist ceremony
At the scene of the stand-off, relatives of two dead hostages attended a Buddhist ceremony Tuesday meant to comfort those who die violently.
Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said the Buddhist ritual was performed by the victims’ relatives as a way of saying goodbye for their departed love ones.
“They were chanting, burnt papers, where the names of the victims are written and also lighted candles,” he said.
The tearful relatives trailed monks who walked around bus, sprinkling water around the bullet-peppered vehicle. The relatives later offered fruits — apples, corn, oranges — and kneeled in front of a platform with burning incense.
A group of ladies, clad in yellow shirts also offered prayers to the victims as hundreds of people continue to flock in the area to take photos of the bullet-peppered Hong Thai tourist bus.
“We are trying to encourage this offering to happen in other parts of the country, in Cebu, in Davao in support of the Hong Kong people,” he said.
Over 200 tourism stakeholders in Davao City gathered at the city's People's Park at 4 p.m. Tuesday and offered flowers and lighted candles to show grief for the slain Hong Kong tourists.
Davao Travel Agencies Association president Pia Montano said the gathering is the tourism sector's way to "show our unity as a nation in grieving for the Chinese tourists."
Apology
At the presidential palace, Aquino met with Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao and later spoke by phone for 15 minutes with Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, briefing him on the progress of the investigation and assuring him the Philippine government will assist the victims and their relatives, Lacierda said.
Liu, the Chinese ambassador, said various Philippine officials had apologized to him over what happened.
In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry warned Chinese citizens "to be cautious when traveling to the Philippines" and pay attention to security risks and personal safety.
There was anger in Hong Kong. At the Philippine Consulate, several dozen protesters chanted: "Strongly condemn the Philippine government for being careless about human life!"
Many Hong Kong newspapers printed mastheads in black out of respect for the victims, and flags in the territory flew at half-staff.
"Filipino police incompetent," Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News said in a front-page headline Tuesday.
The South China Morning Post called the killings "a wake-up call" for the Philippines to boost security and take gun-control measures.
Backlash
Philippine officials have expressed alarm over the condition of Filipinos working in Hong Kong after the hostage taking.
Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said they received a complaint from a domestic helper in Hong Kong.
The complainant said she was sacked by her employer after witnessing the hostage drama unfolding on live television Monday.
Carandang said although they have not received official reports yet, the government is appealing to foreign countries not to retaliate on innocent Filipinos abroad despite unfortunate end of the hostage crisis.
"We understand the anger and the dismay of the people of Hong Kong but at the same time we don’t think that it is right that our ordinary citizens who have nothing to do with this should be paying the price for that," he stressed.
He noted that this is one of the concerns that the government is hoping to address as they send high level delegation to Hong Kong sometime this week.
High-level delegation
President Aquino ordered Tuesday the formation of a high-level delegation tasked to explain to the Hong Kong government regarding the hostage crisis.
Hong Kong officials demanded for a thorough explanation on what transpired in the almost 12-hour hostage drama.
There is no exact flight schedule yet for the delegation, which is possibly to be headed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, according to Carandang.
He noted that there is no need for the President to personally appease the Hong Kong government who expressed outrage on the incident.
But the President personally expressed his sympathy and regret to the Chinese government by meeting with Chinese ambassador and Hong Kong officials in Malacañang on Tuesday.
Aquino also personally called Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Donald Tsang to explain the incident.
Tsang was reportedly upset with Aquino when he was apparently unreachable at the height of the crisis.
Lacierda explained that Aquino was in a closed-door meeting with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) when Tsang was trying to call him for details.
In the talk with Tsang, Carandang said President Aquino reiterated his sympathy to the Chinese government and regret how the hostage crisis came to an unfortunate end.
Victims
On Monday, as negotiations to end the stand-off got underway, the outcome looked promising at first with the hostage taker, Rolando Mendoza, freeing nine hostages — six tourists, a Filipino photographer, and his Filipino assistant. Fifteen tourists and the Filipino driver remained.
Mendoza killed some of the tourists who remained in the bus when negotiation for his reinstatement to his job as a policeman failed. The hostage-taker was also killed by a sniper shot to the head.
Philippine National Red Cross secretary general Gwendolyn Pang said eight Hong Kong nationals were killed in the almost 12-hour stand-off.
Pang identified the fatalities as Tse Ting Chung Masa, 30; Fu Cheuk Yan, 39; Leung Song Yi Jessie, 16; Yeung Yee Kam, 46; Yeung Yee Wa, 45; Wong Tze Lam, 50; Leung Doris Chung See, 20; and Leung Ken Kam Wing.
Other Hong Kong tourists who survived the ordeal are Li Yick Biu, Li Fung Kwan, Tsang Yee Lai, Fu Chung Yin, Fu Chak Yin, Wong Ching Yat, Leung Jason Song Xen, Chang Kwok Chu Joe, Lo Kam Fun, Lee Ying Cheun, Ng Amy Yau Wong, Yik Zhu Ling, and Wong Cheuk Yu Tracy.
"I hid under a seat (when the gunman started to fire)," Wang Zhuoyao, 15, told reporters from a hospital bed. "Then the police dispersed gas. People in the bus were struggling. I could hear that many people couldn't breathe."
A freed hostage who gave only her surname, Ng, told Hong Kong reporters that she saw her husband killed by Mendoza after he tried to subdue the gunman.
"He was very brave. He rushed forward from the back of the bus. He wanted to prevent the gunman from killing people. He sacrificed himself," she said.
She said Mendoza at first "did not want to kill us, but since the negotiation failed, he shot to kill people."
Tourism Secretary Lim said the hostage crisis would likely damage the Philippine tourism industry.
"We will have cancellations," he told AP early Tuesday in a Manila hospital, where some of the former hostages were treated. "I'm hoping it will be forgotten soon enough."
About 140,000 Hong Kong tourists come annually, he said.
"We will try to improve ourselves and assure the Hong Kong government and the rest of the world that we will be able to handle matters much better in the future," he said. (Glaiza Jarloc/Jill Beltran/Virgil Lopez/JCV/FP/AMN/AP/Sunnex)
