Brother triggered hostage-taker to snap according to negotiator
As the Manila police faced questions about what went wrong the day after, one of the negotiators at the center of Monday’s hostage crisis insisted that it all came down to SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, the brother of hostage-taker Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza.
“The brother was the trigger that made him snap,” said Chief Inspector Romeo Salvador, who was with the chief negotiator, Supt. Orlando Yebra, attempting to secure the release of the hostages, many of whom were Chinese tourists from Hong Kong.
“Ang ganda na ng usapan (The talk was going nicely). He (Mendoza) was about to surrender. We already had good rapport with him. We successfully got him to release nine hostages,” Salvador said.
However negotiations went to waste following Gregorio’s statement to the hostage-taker not to accept a deal set up by the negotiators unless his firearm, which was confiscated before he joined the negotiation, was returned to him.
In addition to that, Gregorio mentioned to his brother not to accept the letter of the Ombudsman that was brought to him by Yebra and Salvador. Gregorio was heard telling Rolando the letter was “basura (trash).”
As the negotiators and Gregorio turned to leave, Mendoza made warning shot. “His gun was aimed at us,” Salvador said.
Due to his actions, which the police considered to have interrupted the negotiations, it was decided to place Gregorio under arrest.
He attempted to resist arrest and was shoved into a mobile police car. While this was happening, this was covered live by TV stations and monitored by his brother from the TV set on the bus.
“He became emotional and that’s when he started firing shots,” Salvador said. “That’s when we knew we could no longer continue the negotiation.”
Photo credits AP
What others are also reading:
- Ex-cop hijacks tourist bus near Luneta Park
- 8 killed in Hong Thai bus hostage crisis
- Rolando Mendoza, takes control of a tourist bus
- Brother-in-law of Luli Arroyo wounded in C-5 carjacking
- Police started to attack as tourist bus driver escaped
