Revisiting a botched rescue

What will Philippine officials and diplomats miss if they skip a trip to Hong Kong to avoid new visa restrictions?

Pinoy taxpayers will be happy if these officials’ trips are scrapped, although the officials will likely just find other places to visit. But back to what will be missed by the 700 to 800 officials who reportedly visit Hong Kong each year:

These days shopping is better in Manila than Hong Kong for all income brackets. Genuine branded products are cheaper here. You can get mid-range clothing and other items at reasonable prices at the malls, including imports from another bargain center, Thailand, and other neighboring countries.

For bargain basement items, there’s 168 Mall and the surrounding stores of Divisoria plus the numerous weekend tiangge.

For dirt-cheap clothing, there are the ukay-ukay stores selling jeans for P50 a pair and shirts for P20 or even P10. These stores have mushroomed all over like lechon manok stalls. A tsinoy told me the ukay-ukay items are so cheap not because their owners are dead or suffered from the cooties, as some folks warn, but because the clothes are used primarily to conceal prohibited drugs and other contraband from China. The clothes are then distributed to ukay-ukay shops at token prices just to get rid of them.

Pinoys might miss the succulent Cantonese food, and the scenery from Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak. But we have enough breathtaking natural scenery right here in our country. There’s good Chinese home cooking in some holes-in-the-wall in Manila’s Chinatown. And those with money to spend for Chinese food tripping in Hong Kong can instead go to Singapore, visa-free.

So far the Hong Kong sanctions have not covered the estimated 160,000 Filipinos working in the Special Administrative Region, although Pinoy travelers have been advised to skip visits if they want to avoid trouble. Maybe the Hong Kong government learned a lesson from Taiwan, which suffered a backlash after overseas Filipino workers complained of harassment and racial slurs when a Taiwanese fisherman was shot dead by the Philippine Coast Guard at the Balintang Channel.

Taiwan, however, quickly shifted gears. It probably helped that the Philippine government sent an emissary to apologize to the victim’s family, and subjected the Coast Guard personnel involved to administrative and criminal proceedings.

It also probably helped that Taiwan does not take orders from Beijing. China’s hand is seen behind Hong Kong’s strong stand on the deaths of eight of its residents in a hostage crisis in Rizal Park on Aug. 23, 2010. Beijing oversees foreign policy for its Special Administrative Region.

The Philippine government has expressed regret for the deaths, and pinned the blame squarely on the hostage taker. What else should P-Noy say by way of apology? So sorry for our slapstick law enforcement?

Beijing’s mood toward Manila isn’t going to improve after President Aquino likened China’s aggressive moves in disputed seas to the start of Nazi imperialism shortly before World War II.

Malacañang further stoked the fire yesterday by saying – correctly – that might does not make right in territorial claims.

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But there must be more to the Hong Kong outrage than Beijing’s hand. Hong Kong, which sent a police team to Manila as observers, kept its peace while an “investigation and review committee” headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima conducted a probe into what went wrong and who should be held responsible for the tragically botched response of the Manila police to the hostage incident.

The Manila Police District’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team performed so pathetically the rescue would have been comic, if the bungling had not led to the deaths of eight hostages plus the hostage-taker, dismissed Manila policeman Rolando Mendoza.

When De Lima’s committee completed its probe, it identified critical mistakes committed by then Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, Manila police chief and ground commander Rodolfo Magtibay and chief negotiator Orlando Yebra.

De Lima’s report recommended administrative or criminal charges against Lim, Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, deputy ombudsman Emilio Gonzales III, then interior undersecretary Rico Puno, Magtibay, Yebra, SWAT commander Santiago Pascual, then national police chief Jesus Verzosa, then Metro Manila police director Leocadio Santiago Jr., two journalists and three broadcasting networks.

What happened to the committee’s recommendations? Has anyone been penalized for bungling the rescue? We know the answer to this.

It might help if those in charge of the operations apologized to Hong Kong instead of Manila’s current mayor, Joseph Estrada. But these days we don’t even know who really was in charge, and how high up command responsibility went during the daylong crisis.

Clearly, no one wants to admit that the buck stopped with him and assume full command responsibility. No one is ready to take the heat for P-Noy, who at one point reportedly monitored the event over special siopao at the Emerald Garden near Rizal Park.

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Another issue that merits a review is whether the Manila police SWAT team – once the nation’s best – has improved its capability since the incident.

The crisis, which unfolded from late morning till evening, was watched live around the world and made the Philippine National Police a global laughingstock.

Other countries learned from their bungling of similar incidents and upgraded their law enforcement response capability. Special teams were formed and given the necessary equipment and training.

In our case, a special police unit for tourists was formed – and quickly forgotten.

It’s a good thing that no incident has cropped up to test whether the Manila police SWAT team has improved its capability. But one day it will be put to a test. The government should hope the result would not be another tragedy.