also heard that there’s some politics between the philipino govt n the ex police….

anyways, the 2 governments r gonna talk….let c how it goes……sigh

cindy called n she was crying…that’s so sad….as the local news mistakenly reported that all hostages got killed…

I know…..i hope it doesn’t create too much drama…..

these kind of events sometimes set off crazy things afterwards though…

There is a story behind the hostage. I am not sure how true is this. I do not know if anyone heard about the news of a son of a BIG, wealthy politician jailed in Hong Kong for suspected bringing of illegal drugs and was bailed out worth millions of pesos. He was embarrassed as the news went all nationwide.

Filipinos said after few weeks the son got out of Hong Kong jail, the hostage happened and probably this really BIG politician who has a background with illegal gambling known as Jueting hired this police officer( MENDOZA) to target Hong Kongers inside the bus due to anger of bringing his son to embarrassment in Hong Kong.

With this, some Filipinos working in Hong Kong were fired when their employers heard the news.

I am really sad but when we Filipinos heard the news, we feel its like normal in Philippines its not something new anymore. Just the difference this time the hostages are tourists.

Well, these unfounded rumors won’t help the case, Marie. It may just promote more hatred that has already reached its peak.

And Mike, am sure you know this as you’ve been here, the Philippines is not all THAT. Thank you for choosing not to be swayed by what you’ve heard. Could’ve happened anywhere, to anyone. Evil you could find anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, it happened here yesterday.

Am not proud that this happened in my country but this will not stop me from talking about the good things about it either.

thanks for sharing Marie, …….yes because many people wonder why it was a HK tourist bus. It was clearly a chinese bus as it had the characters on the side of the bus……so would it really have been RANDOMLY picked……

and he let off certain people from the bus, but not others…….

wish we could verify…..but probably never willl…

just a sad story that will take time for people to forget….

hey Mike Mo.
yea….well at least Marie said its unverified……

i will not let 1 specific case sway me. if it had been americans on the bus, sure it would “hit home” a bit more……and scare me even more…..

but there are risks……i do get scared there in the Philippines more then other places…..just doesn’t give you a safe feeling at times.

It is dangerous everywhere, however if you use common sense and normal caution many things can avoided. This people were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Shouldn’t stop people from thinking for themselves and not rely on tabloids. Have a safe trip Mike.

Mike, you have been too adventurous I must say and that’s the reason why you’ve seen/felt more than the usual. Honestly haven’t been to a number of places you’ve been to and its for the simple reason that these places are the less safe ones. Couldn’t blame you for feeling unsafe at times.

But being a foreigner here in the country, I know you must experience the culture. But at the same time rem to be responsible for your own safety, of what you’re getting yourself into. If you’re the only foreigner in that area, that must be a tell tale sign right?

Just go to the right places Mike. You’ll be fine.

Mike Mo – haha, i’ve gone to places you haven’t dared to go…….i feel proud now…..
i’ll be back next week!

Vlad – thanks for commenting, yea…..its kinda a standard reply, sure in new york city there are neighborhoods I’m scared to be in too……but in philipines its much more “raw” and out there…..possibilities and probabilities seem higher

the Philippine police is so stupid…
maybe you should keep a gun with you in Philippino so that you can protect yourself…
Good luck for you in philippino, Mike…

haha, Simon, come on……..

sure, can buy guys everywhere…….i was considering it even before this tragedy…..

stay tuned, maybe i’ll pick one up, thanks for the well wishes

This ought to do the trick – remember the enemy is afraid of loud noises.

all bark no bite, right?

I had put a picture of a large gun in the comment but I guess I can’t link to pictures in comments

you know mike your happy go lucky attitude will only go so far… for the longest time now the Filipinos have been hiding in the shadows of the well established reputation of the Chinese in Toronto, Canada. but no more now… the incident is very serious ..3 people from Toronto got killed including a father and 2 daughters.. the mun survived along her son who will be in a wheel chair for his rest of his life… he was about to enter university to study forensic science.
I’m a man of color.. to be more exact black.. our reputation in Toronto is not very good right now.. people in Toronto will understand what i mean.. \
.the Chinese people are on of the greatest and friendliest people i know.. very genuine and seems like 99 percent racist free…amazing culture and people.. so sad this had o happen to a good honest family lie the leungs

hey Drew,
thx for reading and commenting….yes, this is a graet tragedy – i am in hong kong as i write this, and there is another mourning event today.

i will be posting a new blog soon about social profiling….its just not fair to any of us that we classify someone by the land their family has grown up. I’m spending the weekend with my friend Hasan who is an american citizen with Pakistani family roots. whenever he enters US borders, he is treated like a terrorist…..but he has a US passport…….

I guess its too difficult to think we should look at each person’s face as an individual, because there are so many people in the world, coming and going so quickly, as humans we have to generalize and group people ……wonder if that will ever change

maybe when we implant barcodes into the back of our necks people will be individuals?????

haha,Mike,i put on a post on szstuff,and got lots of criticizm that I am a racist..i said i am so angry that the philippine police man kill HK people,and I will not go to Philippine which is too dangerous for chinese people.^^ I admit i am wrong,not all phillipine people are bad.

hi Jane,

sure, the first reaction is BLAME all the people from that country that hurt your country people, right? That is just human nature…..but I think we have to control our emotions and feelings and look closer……is it a 1 person event or a country event . I am sure these Filipinos in Hong Kong and China would not support such an act……it is still strange this was against HK people….

News still just keeps showing it on TV over and over…

Too sad our Country is getting angered by people,as a Filipino it is a Shame that our Country is getting a lot of Blames but the only thing i hope that there will be “NO WAR” i mean,people in our community is getting aware that this will start a War but let’s hope not…

The only thing i Blame is the media that coverage all things that happen but they do not Clear what it is…And the lack of equipments too…Everyone is talking about the Polices mistakes too,why don’t they just shoot a non-lethal (or lethal) shot at the Hostage-Taker when his waving at the Camera to finish it up…

Uhmm you guys think that you’ll need a gun just to cross a street in Philippines??…Well that’s a No i mean it’s a Coincidence we all don’t expect that…Only dangerous place in philippines is Mindanao…

Sorry for bad english im only 13

hey Cyrus,
thanks for commenting and your english is fine – be confident and keep practicing – practice makes perfect.

Yes, this hostage situation was almost a month ago now and its still a popular topic in news all over the world…..keep seeing it in newspaper headlines and different perspectives.

But I agree with you – I don’t see this causing some kind of war with any other countries. I think its a wakeup call for the police in the Philippines to do more training on this – and over time I believe it will be forgiven.

Thanks mike…

Yes this Hostage Crisis is still an everyday news in our Country even if it is a month ago…It’s one man’s mistake not all of us…Why are the Chinese people making Overseas Filipino Workers in their Country pay i mean it’s not their fault why are they suffering a stupid ex-police man mistake…And it says that their going to kill them too??…Hmm how sad…

Today i have read in the newspaper that they think the Bus driver is Mendoza’s right hand-man…They are currently investigating it…Because what his statement is opposite to whats the investigators statement…And how did he escape too,Let’s say he did a Houdini escape but if Rolando Mendoza is so Angry he wouldn’t miss to kill him…

I hope this situation has taught our Police force a lesson

and again thanks mike

well I definitely think this situation taught the police here in Philippines a lesson for sure……

but then again, should police be afraid to fire someone if they want to? I wonder how this could really be predicted / prevented in the future, in any country…

when people are fired from a job, they normally are pissed off….and do crazy things…this was just a very extreme case…..but how to predict and prevent is my question

The Hostage Drama happened in the Philippines does not go with the case of the politician’s son. I was in the Philippines when the drama started. I read article watched news.

The truth is… Mendoza was one of the outstanding police officer in his country. Despite of the award he got, Mendoza and some his colleagues had done something, making a story that they caught a drug pusher and saw drug in his car . (The said drug is face powder. Mendoza let the man eat the face powder and ask the man to give 200,000 or else they the man will take consequences of it.) The man fought back against Mendoza. This is the story of Mendoza begun. Police officials had investigated until they found out that Mendoza had MJ seedlings (not really sure if it is seedlings) in his backyard.

Mendoza was planning to have early retirement next year. Unfortunately, there were some anomaly during his tenure of service in the government. Instead of having early retirement, he was suspended for one year of service. This is where the drama started.

Wow, thanks for this information Rhea….sad because most people may never find out the true story, or know who to believe.

But it is sad taht he lost his retirement with only 1 year of service left….maybe there should have been some sort of better package offered to him rather then losing everything?

anyway, thanks for the comment

NO OFFENSE.. I am just some articles.

Why other people think that Philippines is a dangerous place? Is it because, FILIPINO media are not blind in reality, NO SIDES to take?

On August 19, 2005, Emmanuel “Bong” Madrigal, a Manila-based Filipino executive of the multinational Shell, was visiting Beijing on vacation with his wife Vivian, his daugher Regina Mia, and two younger daughters. That day, they rode a tourist bus to Tiananmen Square, the heart of the capitol. Upon arriving at the square, Emmanuel Madrigal was the first to descend from the bus, followed by Vivian and Regina Mia. A Chinese man wielding a scythe–in some reports it was described as a sword–suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hacked Emmanuel across his torso. He died on the spot. The man also attacked and seriously wounded Vivian. He then slashed at and killed Regina Mia. By this time, bystanders were trying to subdue the man, and Vivian shouted to her two other daughters to get away and save themselves. Somehow the girls made their way back to the hotel. Vivian was brought to a Beijing hospital, where she died several days later of her injuries.

An Associated Press report still circulating on the internet states that the killer was Wang Gongzuo, 25, a farmer from eastern China’s Jiangsu province. He was sentenced to death for the murder of the Madrigals and executed a few weeks later, in September. The AP report states: ‘Wang’s motive for killing the two is unclear. After the incident occurred the Beijing Morning Post reported that he had wanted to ‘affect society using extreme actions,’ but didn’t elaborate.

” Reflect on the parallels. A family of vacationers on a tourist bus: the Leungs and the Madrigals. A killer out to “affect society using extreme actions”: Mendoza and Wang. A massacre in a public place of symbolic significance: The Quirino grandstand, where the presidential inauguration had been held just weeks before, and site of the civil society protests against the Marcos regime; and Tiananmen Square, since ancient times the symbol of the centralized power of the Chinese state, and site of the 1991 civil protests against the government. In both incidents, the state failed miserably in protecting innocent tourists.

And there the parallels end. President Aquino has apologized to the families of Mendoza’s victims and conveyed his sorrow to the people of Hongkong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang, and Ambassador Lin Jian Chao. The Philippine National Police acknowledge that they botched matters beyond comprehension. Philippine legislators, ahead of their Hongkong counterparts, called for a full investigation. Philippine media organizations are looking to their own culpability in the affair. And masses of ordinary Filipinos, on TV, radio, print, and the Internet, are expressing collective horror, remorse and pity over the terrible fate of the innocent tourists, and bow their heads in shame before the Hong Kong people’s sorrow and anger. That is how it should be, that is only right.

But. To this day, five years after it happened, there is no public record of any Chinese official acknowledging the tourist killings in Tiananmen Square and apologizing to the Madrigals, much less the Filipino people, for the murder of Emmanuel, Regina Mia and Vivian. Not a single expression of regret that the Chinese police failed in their duty to protect the lives of innocent tourists in the very heart of Beijing, in the symbolic center of a state that prides itself most of all for its ability to control and contain disorder. There was a total blackout on the part of the Chinese press, and, according to another news report, government censors quickly blocked many internet sites where Chinese users had begun to post comments about the killing. So we will likely never know what ordinary Chinese citizens had to say about aboutthe incident . Maybe some of them were actually sorry for what happened. The closest thing to expressed regret was in fact the final reported action of the killer Wang, who waived his right to appeal the sentence of execution, and got a bullet in the back of his head.

To add to the horror, it would appear that the Arroyo administration was complicit in the silence. No public statement was ever made by the Philippine government regardingthe incident . Unlike in Hongkong, no flags were flown at half-mast in Manila, and no three-minute silence was observed to mark the deaths of the innocent Filipino tourists. No demand has ever been made by any Filipino official for an apology, and for an accounting. A full investigation of the Quirino Grandstand killing is ogoing. But what of that other killing, also in August, five years ago in Tiananmen Square?

The President of the Philippines is being pressured by other leaders of Asia…. What about the massacre happened in Beijing?

http://silkenhut.com/tiananmen-square-massacre-unpublished-truth-or-hostage-drama-counter/

well….you cannot compare how the Chinese government does its public relations compared to other world countries. China is very secretive about the news it publishes……

I believe most other countries in the world would make a public apology, while China is a bit of a different case in taht if it apologizes, then it admits it was its country’s fault

I don’t know if this is true…and this is my observation and opinion…i think this hostage drama is a set up by those filipino stupid corrupt governments and that stupid MENDOZA (that ex police)…..and other govt. relative, but some of them are not…
they are some of this reason why filipinos become poor country becoz of corruption and 2nd is population…stupid governments!!!

yes, while I am not aware enough of the Filipino government, but I think all governments (USA included) is somewhat corrupt.

Maybe its human nature….when an individual has so much power and influence….they are corrupted to make decisions that will help them