President Noynoy Aquino's Statement Regarding the Manila Hostage Crisis

The past May election resulted to President Benigno Aquino being elected as the President of the Philippine Republic. Looking forward to advance and bolster the economy by doubling tourist arrivals and reducing corruption, this was the goal of the administration. But the recent August 23 Manila Hostage crisis proves it wrong somehow. The benchmark stock index yesterday fell the most in 11 weeks and the peso had its biggest drop since June 7.

Moreover, in a recently held press conference, President Noynoy Aquino decided to break the silence and offer sympathy to those people included and involved in the said crisis. Here is President Noynoy Aquino’s official statement regarding the hostage crisis that happened last August 23, 2010 at the Quirino Grandstand:


P-NOY'S PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO:

“With the rest of the Filipino people, I wish to offer our deepest condolences to the families of the victims whose lives were lost in the hostage situation at the Quirino Grandstand. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs has conveyed our deep feelings of sorrow to the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China and the people of Hong Kong through Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald TsangDonald Tsang. I have tasked Secretaries Soliman and Lim to provide everything necessary for the recovery and return home of the survivors. I have directed the fullest cooperation with the Hong Kong authorities on the part of our officials.

From the onset of this incident, the hostage-taker seemed to not be belligerent, as shown by the release of hostages. These were encouraging signs.

We were going to wait him out. The idea was to let the ground commanders who are the experts in this field handle the operation with minimal interference from people who are less expert.

But the situation deteriorated rapidly when, during the course of the negotiations, he was given the letter of the Ombudsman in which she promised to personally review his case. As he was reading the contents of the letter, while talking to an unknown individual on the phone, he became increasingly agitated.

The presence of his brother also added to the tension.

At this point, he threatened to kill a hostage. The police decided to remove the brother from the scene. As the negotiators were departing, the negotiators were shot at.

Media coverage of his brother being taken into custody further agitated the hostage-taker.

Shots were fired. They seemed to be warning shots, as there was no audible indication of tumult or chaos to show that the hostages were in immediate danger.

Nonetheless, the negotiators tried to re-establish contact the hostage-taker but they were unsuccessful as the cell phone of the hostage-taker was continuously busy. He also refused to answer the throw-phone provided for him by the authorities.

The escape of the driver, combined with his reports that the hostages were being harmed, forced the assault to happen. When the vehicle began to move, and with reports that he had hand grenades, a decision was made to immobilize the vehicle as it would have made the situation even more dangerous.

As we know, the incident tragically ended in the deaths of eight innocent civilians.

We expect more of the facts to come to light and I have ordered Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to thoroughly lead this review.”
------end------

Well, it's hard to say anything regarding President Noynoy Aquino's plan in going about a national security. I'd better leave it to him, and he better give a strategic and systemic plan as soon as possible. Philippine or the National Security should be given high priority and must be look into. Outstanding national security is directly proportional to a nation's economic growth and status. If we Filipino is aiming high for our advancement, then we should take this as a top priority. Our government should better start now and laid some plans.

The Philippines budgeted 49.7 billion pesos ($1.09 billion) to police its 104 million people this year, less than Hong Kong’s outlay to protect a population 1/15th the size. The dearth of funds is mirrored in the military, which has seen spending rise at a quarter of the rate of inflation in the past two decades.

To make up the shortfall the government relies on paramilitary groups linked to local politicians to help fight Communist rebels, Muslim separatists and the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. One such private army contributed to a massacre of 57 people in the south last year in the nation’s worst act of election-related violence.