Ex-cop hijacks tourist bus near Luneta Park
According to reports, a dismissed police captain on Monday has held hostage a busload of Hong Kong tourists at the Quirino grandstand.
Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza has an armalite and is holding some 25 tourists aboard a Hong Thai travel bus with plate number TUU-799.
"We are still trying to determine the circumstances of the hijacking and what happened," Metro Manila police commander Director Leocadio Santiago said .
"There are children and adults on the bus," he said.
Negotiations with the hostage taker are being handled by Superintendent Orlando Yebra and Chief Inspector Romeo Salvador.
Background information gathered by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Mendoza appears that he has been facing charges for manhandling a suspect before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Mendoza has been sending messages to police negotiators via pieces of paper.
UPDATES: Three children and three adults reportedly were released by the ex-police captain who took a bus filled with tourists hostage three hours earlier.
According to obtained information, the policeman was discharged in 2008 for his alleged participation in drug-related crimes and extortion, and was demanding to be reinstated, police said.
A live video footage showed the bus parked in front of a grandstand at Rizal Park, a popular tourist destination just several blocks from the police headquarters.
The hostage-taking came hours following a South Korean man was killed in a separate attack by gunmen elsewhere in Manila. Police confirmed the incidents were not connected.
A clarification was made by national police confirming the tourists were from Kong Kong an d not South Koreans.
That hostage-taking happened near the Manila city hall, just off Rizal Park.
In additional report, Mendoza, the dismissed cop, halted the bus somewhere in Intramuros. He was permitted to enter the bus, since he was in uniform and was carrying an armalite. In a video footage, a delivery from a famous food chain, Jollibee brought food probably for the hostage taker. There were also demands of fuel, since the the gauge appears to be lowering. more updates will be posted in awhile, as of now 6 hostages were released.
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