Philippines should understand HK's grief
- Source: Global Times
- [02:12 August 25 2010]
- Comments
The hostage crisis that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead in Manila on Monday continues to wrench the hearts of the families of the victims, as well as millions of Chinese who watched the tragedy live or read about it afterward.
The Philippine government has promised to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. Still, people cannot help question the sluggish and senseless rescue efforts of the Philippine police.
The Philippines has recently been plagued by terrorist activities, yet its police force showed no signs of well-trained efficiency.
The situation was made even worse with the lack of special equipment necessary for such emergencies.
The clumsy attempts to smash the windows with a hammer, the failure to pull open the front door with a fragile rope, the several precious missed chances to gun down the hostage taker, all show a lack of professionalism.
The Philippine authorities failed to put the lives of the hostages above everything else in their rescue ef-forts.
Although there are still some unanswered questions, the available information shows that the gunman, Rolando Mendoza, was not some rebel with religious or political pursuits demanding the government kneel down. He was just a disgruntled senior police officer asking to get his job back.
In order to make sure the hostages were safe and not to cause diplomatic disputes, the authorities could have easily accepted the gunman's request, or at least given him some promise to calm him down.
Also, the police apparently did not learn anything about the gunman's brother when they sent him to negotiate with Mendoza, only to find him standing on Mendoza's side.
The brother just made the situation worse.
The Chinese people are fully entitled to demand a sincere answer from the Philippine government, as they deserve protection from the authorities when touring the country.
The Philippines has seen a dramatic increase in the number of tourists from Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese mainland, and more than 150,000 Philippines are working in Hong Kong.
If the Philippine government wants to see more people come to its land to boost its tourism economy, the first and foremost thing it has to do is to beef up public security.
The decision by the Hong Kong government to warn its residents to cancel all trips to the Philippines may be a last resort the Special Administrative Region can use to protect its citizens from more harm in the tourist destination.
It is also understandable, given the fact that 138 hostage-taking crises took place in Philippines last year, and 56 cases in the first half of this year.
The Philippine government needs to take the latest tragedy as a strong lesson in making an overhaul of its security system, so as to recover the country's international image.
The measures will also bring stability to its society and benefit its economy.
