Mayor Alfredo Lim interferes hostage negotiation

Mayor ordered hostage-taker’s brother arrest—Manila police chief

NEWS SOURCE: INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 4) It was Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim who ordered the arrest of the brother of the dismissed policeman who held hostage Hong Kong tourists in Manila last Monday that resulted in the deaths of eight tourists, the city’s chief of police told a Senate investigation Thursday.

“It's Mayor Lim,” Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay told a joint hearing by the committees on public order, and justice, responding to repeated questions by Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

Magtibay said he was with Lim when the mayor ordered the arrest of Captain Rolando Mendoza's younger brother, Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza.

In an interview over the ABS-CBN television program "Umagang Kay Ganda," Gregorio Mendoza said it was Lim who ordered his arrest, spurred by police negotiator Superintendent Orlando Yebra’s report to his superiors that he was derailing the talks by telling his brother not to surrender because authorities have not yet returned a handgun that was confiscated from him.

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Hostage-taker killed as crisis ends

Interior chief ‘very sorry’

NEWS SOURCE: INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 6) It’s over. The hostage crisis that gripped the world for at least 10 hours Monday ended with at least three people killed, including the hostage-taker, and 17 survivors, according to reports culled by INQUIRER.net.

The body of dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza was recovered inside the tourist bus that he took over in Manila about 9 a.m. He was taken to Ospital ng Maynila. Also taken to the same hospital were seven of the hostages, five of who are alive and two dead.

Five – one in critical condition and one dead – are at the Manila Doctors’ Hospital while one confirmed dead is at San Juan De Dios.

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