God. When it rains, it pours. Not a good week for the Philippine police. Their guys get caught yanking people's dicks with ropes, and now ex-employees are hijacking tourist buses full of kiddies. Man. What a way to start a week. I bet by Friday the police force will be on strike, and maybe Manila will get sold to corporations that want to turn it into a Delta City or something.Yahoo! News wrote:
MANILA (AFP) - – An ex-policeman armed with a high-powered assault rifle hijacked a bus carrying more than 20 Hong Kong tourists including children in the Philippine capital on Monday, police said.
Six hostages, three of them children, were released by the gunman about three hours after the drama began.
The policeman was discharged in 2008 for his alleged involvement in drug-related crimes and extortion, and was demanding to be reinstated, police said.
"There are children and adults on the bus," Metro Manila police commander Director Leocadio Santiago said on DZBB radio as the drama was being played out live on national television.
"He is armed with an M-16 assault rifle," he added.
A national police statement said at least 22 tourists from Hong Kong were on board the bus. The statement said that, aside from the driver, they were believed to be the only people aboard the bus.
About three hours after the stand-off began, the ex-policemen released six people, including three children, with the drama being aired live on national television.
Santiago identified the suspect as Rolando Mendoza, a decorated former police senior inspector before he was accused and relieved of his post.
National police spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz said the bus has been isolated and police had deployed commandos in the area, and that talks with the gunman had begun.
"Negotiations are ongoing," Cruz told reporters.
Live television footage showed the bus parked in front of a grandstand at Rizal Park, a popular tourist destination just several blocks from the police headquarters.
Children could be seen peeking from the drawn curtains as a lone police negotiator hovered near the scene.
The hostage-taking came hours after a South Korean man was killed in a separate attack by gunmen elsewhere in Manila. Police said the incidents were not related.
Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said that the bus was operated by a Hong Thai, a Hong Kong-based travel agency.
The national police statement confirming the tourists were from Kong Kong corrected earlier statements by police that they were South Koreans.
The incident brought back memories of a similar hostage taking in 2007, when a troubled civil engineer armed with a grenade took over a bus and took 30 kindergarten students hostage but freed them after a 10-hour standoff with police.
That hijacking happened near Manila city hall, just off Rizal Park.
Also, I swear, there was a Bruce Willis movie where he was a rogue cop who held up a bus full of people.