Philippine Bus Massacre: Many blaming the news coverage for the disastrous end.

Rolando Mendoza

Manila - Poorly planned negotiations and bringing the gunman's family to the hostage stand-off are what sent the Ex-chief inspector Rolando Mendoz into a killing spree with a fully automatic M-16 assault rifle. The moment live TV showed his brother being arrested by police, is the moment he started killing the hostages. Mendoza, 55, wearing combat pants and armed with an assault rifle, commandeered a tourist bus carrying 22 Hong Kong tourists and three Filipinos in Manila on Monday.
Mendoza and at least eight of the hostages were killed when his former colleagues stormed the bus to end the 12-hour stand off.
Philippine authorities say Rolando Mendoza hijacked the bus filled with tourists in a desperate attempt to clear his name.
Mendoza, a former police captain,was dismissed from the force after a chef at a Manila hotel accused him and four other officers of an extortion scheme, saying they had falsely accused the chef of using drugs.
The former police captain, Mendoza had been honored repeatedly for his public service, and in 1986 was named as one of the top 10 officers in the Philippines.
SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, brother of the hostage-taker, was arrested by the Manila Police, for carrying a gun and trying to contact his brother by cell phone. Civilians were reported to have been shot as a result from the chaos that unfolded. The poor hostage handling and the untrained SWAT team made matters worse.
The case captivated — and angered — many Filipinos, with many of them blaming the news coverage for the disastrous end. I would agree, the media never should have shown his brother being dragged away by police live on TV during the stand off. I watched the whole thing unfold, if the hostage taker was watching any kind of TV on the bus this was going to set him off. Which it did.