Informal Theme #1
Blog #1
The hostage taking of mostly Hong Kong nationals in a Manila tourist bus was done only by one disgruntled Filipino ex-policeman. He may have intentionally taken foreign nationals as his victims to attract international attention. He was suspended without benefits from his position as chief inspector or senior inspector in the police force. It is equivalent to a captain in the military. It seems that accusations against him were valid and had proof, resulting to the suspension.
Events during negotiations and the eventual assault were the ones questionable. Had the hostages been locals, it might not have drawn that much international attention. This could also be true and applicable to any third world country. The point here is authorities in charge of the crisis based their conclusions on mere assumptions and lack of coordination. This is aside from their being ill-equipped. Sometimes this is the defect of the saying, "it is better to make a wrong decision than to have made no decision at all". Authorities wanted to end the situation as soon as possible without having considered all possibilities.
Had the hostages been all locals, debriefing of hostages would have been a lot simpler for authorities because they would know they are and are within "arms reach", if they make a mistake. This is easily understood in many third world countries. There are only some authorities like them in many good under-developed nations that experience similar situations. The people of the nation where this event occurred request the world not to judge them as a nation as such. The media helped a lot for people to see where things went wrong. They maybe misinterpreted but based on the circumstances, they had to make do of what was going on.
