Gunman hijacks tourist bus in Philippines

[Kanastrous]

Once you get Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao into the Presidency all will be well.

[Shroom Man 777]

He's a pretty okay guy. At least he can punch anyone who disagrees with him in the face. He's so famous I'm sure the hostage taker would've given himself up in exchange for an autograph. He's bigger then Jose Rizal and MacArthur combined! lol:

But yeah, a few highlights. A journo asked the President if he should apologize to the Chinese (HKers, whatever). The President said that he had nothing to apologize for, since he didn't do anything wrong. Then he blathered on talking about the Russian theater thing, and the Munich hostage taking thing and how those were also cockups. I don't know what the fuck he's trying to say. He also seemed a bit cheerful and smiled a few times.

God, I am sure the Chinese just loathe him for being a despicable mortal human gaijin now. Fuck.

[Kanastrous]

What's Tagalog for hey, shit happens?

[Shroom Man 777]

I don't know much Tagalog. The local lingos tend to differ when you go to different islands, we've got hundreds of languages. Ask Malachuschus/Illya Morumets. He's a school teacher!

In Bisaya, which I'm ok with and which is probably the second huegest language around, it's ma hitabu ang tae.

Tae is shit.

[generator_g1]

I don't know much Tagalog. The local lingos tend to differ when you go to different islands, we've got hundreds of languages. Ask Malachuschus/Illya Morumets. He's a school teacher!

In Bisaya, which I'm ok with and which is probably the second huegest language around, it's ma hitabu ang tae.

Tae is shit.

I think Kanastrous was asking for the local equivalent of "Shit happens". The ones off my head are "Weather, weather lang yan" from Estrada and the quintessential "Bahala na si Lord (Let God handle it)" saying.

[Ypoknons]

I'll snoop around tomorrow morning to see the reactions. Obviously the black travel advisory only applies to Hong Kong, I haven't heard mainland-side doing anything yet. I don't want get all prissy about the HKer/mainlander divide but it is a real separation of social and governmental systems.

Being reunited with the mainland does bring advantages on the international scene. How far the mainland is willing to act for its nationals abroad, especially Hong Kong nationals, I'm not sure. Is there really a history?

[generator_g1]

Filipinos do need to get a visa if they are going to the mainland. The no visa priviledge only applies to Hong Kong.

[Lusankya]

Has anything actually happened before that would really indicate anything one way or another?

On Xinhua, it seems to be a slightly less important story than the mudslide in Zhouqu and the Category 4 Storm heading for Hainan. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of articles on it, of course. Just that other stories are slightly more prominent. Xinhua seems to be saying that the Chinese Embassy in Manila has been in communication with the Hong Kong officials for the duration of the event though.

[generator_g1]

Has anything actually happened before that would really indicate anything one way or another?

On Xinhua, it seems to be a slightly less important story than the mudslide in Zhouqu and the Category 4 Storm heading for Hainan. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of articles on it, of course. Just that other stories are slightly more prominent. Xinhua seems to be saying that the Chinese Embassy in Manila has been in communication with the Hong Kong officials for the duration of the event though.

It is currently 1 AM in the morning here. Most of the news articles would probably be out by 5 - 6 AM.

[Lusankya]

Dude, I know what time it is in China. The newest in-depth Philippines report is more recent than the newest in-depth Zhouqu report. I'm just reporting what I read.

[Ilya Muromets]

What's Tagalog for hey, shit happens?

Ganyan talaga ang buhay. (Lit. translation: That's life.) Kind of archaic now, though.

As an aside, though, this was deeply embarassing and horrifying. I mean, sure, it's easy to say "they should've done this and that" from the comfort of the TV, but from what my dad said even my military relatives were screaming their heads off at the sheer incompetence of the police. Even when they were evacuating the hostages none of them ever thought to tell all the journalists clamoring around the bus to back the fuck off and give them room to work. Even something that simple they couldn't get right.

All in all, this whole affair just left me with a deep sense of disgust. But, hey, comes with the territory in a 3rd World craphole.

[Zinegata]

I think our local police has gotten used to crazy hostage-takers surrendering after 12 hours that they were totally shocked and surprised that they had to do an assault this time.

[Ypoknons]

Most of the harsh words around here have been reserved for the police, not so much the country itself or its leadership.

[Zinegata]

That's small comfort when Hong Kong nonetheless decides to black list a whole country based on the actions of one lunatic.

[Darth Yoshi]

Well, it's to be expected. If the police are such obvious failures, then if something happens while you're there you'll be SOL, so you may as well not go.

[Shroom Man 777]

It's a diplomatic incident. The way the Philippines handled this was likewise a diplomatic message to HK, and China. Chinese nationals got held hostage, and the Philippines' response was to have a bunch of morons hit a door with a bunch of hammers? That sends quite a bullshit message to China. It means that the best the Philippines could do for China was just that, a bunch of idiots who couldn't hostage-rescue their way into a goddamn tour bus for an hour! HK is well within their rights to blacklist us. I mean, I guess they're not inclined to shout expletives at us, even though EVERYONE was just damn frustrated and disgusted and horrified and incredulous at what they saw on TV. HK's blacklisting the Philippines is just the diplomatic equivalent of saying "You dumb fucks, what the fuck were you guys doing?". It's not just because foreigners and Chinese/HKers are actually in grave danger in the Philippines, but they just wanted to send a message to our shitty government.

[Ypoknons]

It's a black travel advisory - no one is being prohibited against going, but it's a strong recommendation against. I do feel it's unnessasary. I do think Donald Tsang is trying to look tough, but I'm not convinced it's justified:

“For other Hong Kong citizens still in the Philippines, I hope they can come back to Hong Kong as soon as possible with the charter flight,” Tsang said solemnly.

Excessive, yes? I guess he meant tourists, but still, there's nothing large-scale going on right now, it's not a terrorist attack or insurrection. Hong Kong officals have been doing the work so far, the mainland's been making statements but that seems to be it so far.

I don't know about the visa situation, I've been at work all day and we sure don't do immigration law

Technically, under the Basic Law foreign affairs would be within the mainland's jurisdiction, so CE Tsang wouldn't be the right guy to send a message. I think they're just overreacting, to be honest.

[Ilya Muromets]

My dad's been talking to one of our uncles in the military. From what he tells me, said uncle is in a rage. He remembers that he actually helped conduct hostage rescue training sessions for the Manila police. This was one of the scenarios they helped trained the police for. Apparently, it didn't take.

[Shroom Man 777]

I say they'd have the right to overreact, the HK gov't.

And, yeah, those cops that stormed the bus were definitely not SWAT. Where were our special units? I KNOW we've got special units. Damn it.

[His Divine Shadow]

I say they'd have the right to overreact, the HK gov't.

And, yeah, those cops that stormed the bus were definitely not SWAT. Where were our special units? I KNOW we've got special units. Damn it.

Maybe you need to rethink what they mean by 'special' units.

[Shroom Man 777]

Yeah. But I've seen quite a few government operatives decked out in tacticool shit with P90s and Steyr Augs and other nifty kits. Whereas these clowns were just guys with Vietnam-era M16s, a riot shield, and sledgehammers.

[Ypoknons]

If the police did have better units available, it boggles my mind that they did send them when an international incident was at stake.

The other question is who will make the inquiry. Despite limited knowledge I don't think the local authorities will do a good job from what I've seen so far.

[Ilya Muromets]

Maybe some jurisdictional dick-waving got involved. Wouldn't be the first time.

Take that whole Burnham couple fiasco a few years back. Philippine Marine Intelligence managed to get an informant that Abu Sabaya, the leader of the Abu Sayaff band that nabbed them, trusted. They were tracking Sabaya's movement for a while, and got an intelligence boost when the CIA lent a hand with a lot of good ELINT. They were ready to plan a rescue using the informant to set Sabaya up for an ambush.

What happened? Since the highest ranking officer on the spot was an Army general, and he wanted the Philippine Army to go in and get credit, the Army stormed in ignoring most of the intelligence Marine Intelligence managed to gather and got Martin Burnham killed in the bungled rescue. How bungled? they used regular units, for one, and opened up with artillery going into the rescue. In the end, all the Marines managed to do with their intel resources was to set Sabaya up for an ambush after he got away from the bungled rescue attempt.

[generator_g1]

The attitude of the gawkers during the hostage situation is also something to be appalled at.



The hostaged bus was right behind them and these kids treated it like it was some kind of tourist attraction or something....

[Zinegata]

The Philippines is probably the only country where people rush toward gunfire to get a glimpse of what's happening as opposed to running for their lives.

Don't ask me why this is so.