Pala-isip

Here's a summary of what went wrong from BBC News . ==================== A security analyst who has worked in counter-terrorism with the British Army and Scotland Yard, Charles Shoebridge, says the officers involved in Manila's bus siege showed great courage - but they were not properly trained or equipped for the task. Here are 10 areas where, in his view, they could have done better. 1. Determination Philippine police end Manila bus hijack The first officers who tried to storm the bus were driven out by gunshots from the hostage taker, former policeman Rolando Mendoza. "They showed great courage to go on board. It's very crowded, just one aisle down the middle of the bus. But once you get on board it's not unexpected you are going to be fired at. Squads like this have to be made up of very special people, specially trained and selected for their characteristics of courage, determination and aggression. In this case they acted as 99% of the population would have, ...

I got this e-mail accounting the personal observations of a friend regarding the botched rescue attempt of the hostages in Manila on August 23, 2010. ==================== Personal observations on Mendoza’s hostage taking It is very disturbing to see how inept our police forces have remained in handling hostage situations. To wit: · Failure to control the crowd and media. Media was unwittingly telegraphing the PNP plans and positions over TV and radio. Rolando Mendoza apparently was able to listen to radio broadcasts. · The police was ill-equipped with gas masks and comfortable assault uniforms and not office attires. Can you imagine executing assault moves in office uniforms? · It is very important that the hostage taker be kept calm so he will decide on drastic steps not out of panic but clear thinking. The hostage takers must have panicked hearing over the radio the rough handling of his brother by the police who decided to arrest him for obstruction of justice. ·...

Here's the footage of the storming of the bus with hostages in Manila on August 23, 2010. There were 25 hostages and 7 people were killed, 5 were injured and taken to the hospital and 9 were released by the hostage taker Rolando Mendoza. Because of this incident, Hong Kong has issued a travel ban to the Philippines. One of my co-workers who's from Hong Kong said, "My people were killed! How can you live in a country were the peace keepers cannot keep the peace? The police were inept and doesn't even seem to know what they were doing. I wouldn't want to go there." If you look at the footage, you can see that the Philippine SWAT team really looks disorganized. Here's what some of my friends called the SWAT. SWAT = Sorry Wala Akong Training / Sorry We Aren't Trained / Sulong, Wait, Atras, Tago LOL. What a damn shame, goodbye tourism! Here's another video of the hostage crisis from AP. Here are some photos I found online of the situation. Photo copyri...