The Hæven of John

Things I noticed that was “not-right” during the hostage situation in Quirino Grandstand, Manila, Philippines.

Follow up:

• Lack of crowd control - they could have deployed more police to do crowd-control
• Lack of news blackout - why is it that some hostage taking situations in the past there was a news blackout? Why not this one?
• Why arrest the brother of the hostage taker? Any hostage taker will more likely go berserk after that. They could have kept him in the area, “publicly", instead of taking him away from the scene.
• Why did it took too long to decide it is time to use tear gas? If I was one of the hostage there, I will choose to face the tear gas than get killed without seeing any proof that they really want to rescue us. Risk? Isn’t a hostage situation a risk already? Care to explain why?
• Lack of gas masks. Sorry but it was funny to see and hear the report that the policemen were rushing outside of the bus because of the effect of the tear gas.
• When there are rebellions, the government is full force against them. A hostage situation of this degree, they do not have all the tools with them?

Well, feel free to add to the list. Epic fail.

Finally but the most important thing of all, thank God there are more survivors than.. you-know-what. Even after the shameful handling of the situation, some applause goes to the men who put themselves in front of this danger. If there was someone to blame, if there was someone at fault, it was not the individuals involved in the assault/rescue but the system - the whole of it.