MERGED: Quirino Grandstand Hostage Crisis

[yacky2006]

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Ang lamitan incident kay ordinary soldiers raman guro ang gigamit ato. katong rescue ni gracia burnham, LRC ang nakabuhat ato. Daghan na kaayog "elite" units sa AFP ron. tanan commands from air force to army, to navy to marines naa juy giconsider nga elite. not to mention ang SAF sa PNP. ang kuya gani sa akong kabarkada nga half puti kay nagNavy SWAG ron. Basta magkuyog na siya sa iya mga brad ug maminaw ka sa ilang stories, magnganga nalang gud ka. siya ra sad siguro ang amerkano tanawn nga sundalo nga under nagserve sa AFP. lol.

Ang ako lang di jud masabtan kay unsa bajud to nga unit gipada didto nga mura raman ug ordinaryong police nga gipasulob ug helmet ug vest. ang uban gacap pa gani.

kalels ui. Kung palakihay tanan SWAT sa kalibutan, dugay na to nagpanty ug nagmakeup tong MPD nga SWATa to. i do not intend to make fun of them as i am not an expert regarding the situation, pero susmaryosep! makauwaw jud to. nauwaw jud ko ug maayo tungod ato. imagine live and shown all across the world.

cheverlou chenes kaayo makada ug action

grabe kachuva ang pakaslow motion.

LRC diay ni trabaho atong gracia burnham.... patay lagi iyang husband Martin? dili gyud ta ka ingon 100% effective. Sa sine ranang nindot tan-awon sa actual mo tago intawon na..........

[ongkal]

di bitaw ta kaingon sure or effective pero bisan kinsa man nga makakita makaingon nga di jud to angay pangrescue tong ilang gipasung atong bus ui. asa man mo anang ipada ug tear gas canister pero gikalimtan ang gas mask. dayon gipada ug maso pero muslide ra sa kamot kay walay gloves. naa pay nisulong nga gakalo ra.

pagkita nako sa katong mga bus assault sa lain nga mga unit sa laing nasod sa youtube, nauwaw ko samot uy. haaaaiiiizzz. klaro jud kaayo nga wa juy training tarong tong gipadala nila.

LRC diay ni trabaho atong gracia burnham.... patay lagi iyang husband Martin? dili gyud ta ka ingon 100% effective. Sa sine ranang nindot tan-awon sa actual mo tago intawon na..........

[Ice Knight 7]

Grrr!!! Samoka oy! Bigger is better pero wa gigamit... Hastang kapoya!

[lana21]

ay sus daghan etsi buritsi..nahitabo na ang nahitabo- palpak
ours is to learn the lessons nalang and promise to improve and do better next time.
mo rason pa gyud ba nga klaro na kaung palpak
kapoy nako paminaw ani ay, as if makabuhi balik sa mga nangamatay

[umehime00]

Crooked Manila Cops Get Served by Viral E-Mail
May 17, 2008
Jim Ayson


Call it the revenge of the nerds. If anyone reading this has ever been shaken down for money by some corrupt “officer of the law” on some trumped up charge – and this happens so often enough to ordinary citizens it is no longer funny – you might get a kick out of this little tale. Revenge is a dish best served by a viral e-mail, apparently.

This morning I got forwarded an e-mail from photographer and blues aficionado Eddie Boy Escudero that originated from his La Salle alumni yahoogroups. It described a scenario so despicable it might make you curl your hands into fists of rage, railing at the injustice of it all.

Here’s how the original e-mail went (in all caps, at that):

HI ED.

THANKS FOR THE E MAIL. I’D LIKE TO TELL YOU MY SON’S EXPERIENCE WITH THE MANILA POLICE LAST WEDNESDAY EVENING AT ABOUT 10PM.

CHRISTIAN WENT TO THE CONDO AT THE CORNER OF VITO CRUZ AND TAFT AVE. TO RETURN HIS COUSIN’S LAPTOP. HE HANDED THE LAPTOP TO HIS COUSIN AND WENT BACK TO THE CAR. WHEN HE GOT TO THE CAR, THERE WAS A COP ASKING HIM WHAT HE WAS DOING THERE, WHY HE WAS PARKED ON A NO PARKING AREA. CHRISTIAN SAID, IF IT WAS A NO PARKING AREA WHY IS IT THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF CARS PARKED. THE COP SAID OPEN YOUR TRUNK AND CHRIS ASKED, WHY YOU HAVE A WARRANT?

ANYWAY, THE CAR DOORS AND WINDOWS WERE OPEN AND ANOTHER COP SEARCHED THE INTERIOR WHILE ANOTHER OPEND THE TRUNK. IN THE TOOLBOX THEY FOUND THE PLASTIC END OF SPARK PLUGS. THE COP SAID PARAPHARNELIA. THE SAME COP BROUGHT TO THE TRUNK USED PLASTIC SACHETS OF SHABU AND STARTED TO SHOUT DRUGS TO, DRUGS.

SO THEY TOOK CHRISTIAN AND YOU KNOW WHERE, TO THE ATM OF BPI. THEY SAW HIS CARD AND ASKED HIM TO WITHDRAW ALL HIS MONEY. FORTUNATELY HE DOES NOT KEEP HIS MONEY THERE. ONLY HIS SALARY IS DEPOSITED THERE. SO THE COPS WERE INISTING THAT HE WAS A USER. AND MY SON WAS SAYIN DO A TEST NOW SO THEY’LL SEE IF HE’S POSITIVE. HE SAID I CANT WORK IN MANDARIN AS A CHEF IF I’M A USER. HE SAID HE HAD TO GET POLIICE, NBI, BARANGAY, COURT AND MEDICAL CLEARANCE BEFORE HE COULD START WORKING. SO THE POLICE TOOK HIM TO THE HEADQUARTERS AT UN AVE. AND THERE FORCED HIM TO EAT SHABU. IT TOOK A WHILE BEFORE HE ATE IT. SIX COPS WERE PUNCHING HIM AND SCARING HIM WITH THEIR GUNS. TILL THR POOR GUY PEED IN HIS PANTS OF FEAR. HE HAD TO SWALLOW THE DRUG. THEN THE COPS STARTED TO LAUGH. NOW WE’LL SEE IF YOU ARE NEGATIVE OF SHABU.

200,000PHP AND WE’LL LET YOU GO. OR THIS WILL BE AT THE FISCALS OFFICE IN THE MORNING .CALL YOUR FRIENDS AND PARENTS. THIS ORDEAL STARTED AT 10PM. HE WAS ABLE TO CALL ME AT 5AM THE FOLLOWING DAY. POOR SON OF MINE WAS REALLY TRAUMATIZED. A FRIEND OF HIS CAME WITH TWENTY THOUAND THE COPS GRABBED IT AND LET HIM GO AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED. I WAS IN LIPA ALL THE TIME THIS WAS HAPPENNING. CHRIS LATER FOUND OUT FROM HIS COUSIN THAT SEVEN OF HER FRIENDS WERE ALSO APPREHENDED BY THE SAME GROUP OF COPS AND ALSO TOOK THEM TO THEIR ATM’S. THEY GOT ALL THEIR MONEY IN THE ACCOUNT. THIS COP IS CAPT.MENDOZA OF THE MOBILE GROUP AND SARGENT GAVINO.

YOU GUYS KNOW INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE SERVICE, PLS LET THEM KNOW ABOUT THIS.I WOULD ALSO LIKE FOR THEM TO GIVE THE MONEY THEY TOOK BACK TO MY SON SO HE COULD GIVE IT BACK TO HIS FRIEND. THE MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS SO CALLED POLICE OFFICERS THE BETTER. THIS IS THE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT THAT WE HAVE NOW. DISARM THE POPULATION AND THIS TYPE OF ABUSE HAPPENS. THANKS AND PASS IT ON.

BOB

A horrific tale indeed. But who was Bob? I replied to Eddie Boy by e-mail.

An hour or so later came the reply, in snippets of forwarded messages.


From Didi Guannzon-Lucindo came the explanation:

Ref your text message earlier today…

The e-mail was forwarded to my husband TONY’s La Salle Engineering e-group by a classmate, who is a friend of the victim’s father, MR. BOB KALAW of Lipa, Batangas.

I checked with TONY’s classmate from Engineering who forwarded the e-mail of his friend BOB, and ED SANTOS e-mailed me last May 13 that

“Bob Kalaw is a friend of mine and this really happened… my email happened to reach Pnp Chief Sonny Razon thru my friends in masonry…He had an investigation launched thru their internal affairs and you know the policemen involved got back at them and personally apologized for the incident. Unfortunately though, the P20k was not returned.”

The following day, May 14, I got a call from an officer of the Manila Police District, who then e-mailed me :

“I am POLICE SUPERINTENDENT Eleazar Pepito Matta, I gave you a call you this afternoon regarding the email “Beware of a group of Manila Cops”, at present I am the Chief of the General Assignment Section of the Manila Police District, which has jurisdiction over erring police officers in violation of the existing laws, rules/policies of the PNP.

As a backgrounder of the said case/issue, our Office already received orders to conduct investigation regarding the matter as early as April 17,2008. Last April 25,2008, Sr Insp Mendoza and PO3 Gavino were sanctioned administratively, they were relieved from their present assignment with the District Mobile Patrol Unit (DMPU) and was subsequently transferred to the District Mobile Force (DMF).

We also exerted effort to contact and locate Mr Bob Kalaw and Ed Santos thru email and in any available ways but our efforts were futile. We would like to request assistance from you to help us locate and contact both Bob Kalaw and Ed Santos, this way we will have the chance to further our investigation regarding the matter at hand and also to regain our image as a members of the Manila’s Finest and the PNP as a whole.”

And then yesterday afternoon, MAYOR LIM himself called me after the forwarded e-mail got to his attention. He asked for an update, said that the relief of the cops involved is not sufficient, because they should be charged administratively and criminally. Thereafter, I e-mailed him the updates from ED SANTOS and PSUPT. ELEAZAR MATTA above.

I am now trying to reach MR. KALAW through my husband’s college Fellows, one of who said BOB KALAW is his cousin and another guy who texted me and turned out to be the younger brother of another of their Fellows from La Salle Engineering, who is also from Lipa and knows MR. KALAW.

I only hope BOB KALAW and his son are not intimidated and will file the necessary charges so that stronger action can be taken against the errant cops.

At the very least, this whole experience has shown to me that there are many citizens like you showing concern, and waiting for results… and there are government officials like PSupt. Matta and Mayor Lim who have their ears on the ground and are responding to reports like MR. KALAW’s.

Apparently it does work to send out an indignant e-mail, as long as it gets passed around to the right people. Officers Mendoza and Gavino, you scum bags got served – by a mail server. Now how about the P20,000?

source: ayson chronicles: a life online


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Manila - Every story has multiple angles. Every character has multiple facets, each defined by different motives. The story of Rolando Mendoza, the Filipino gunman, is no exception.
His story is not just about a hostage-taking situation that showcased the incompetence of our SWAT Team. It is rooted in something deeper. It stems from subplots involving well-connected figures, slow-moving institutions, flawed governance, and sympathies collected via the technological rumor mill.
But no matter which angle we view this story from, the sad, deplorable condition of the Philippines rears its dirty, ugly head in every single chapter.
Let’s start by stepping back a couple of years to when Rolando Mendoza, the hostage-taker, first hit the news. Let us then take a look at how each character behaved and attempt to discover the motives that drove their behavior by asking seemingly obvious questions.
Chapter one begins in 2008 when Rolando Mendoza, and four other police officers were relieved of their positions. These cops allegedly arrested Christian Kalaw, who claimed to be a chef at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, on fake drug charges and extorted from him the amount of PhP 20,000. The Inquirer reported that they were not terminated, but instead, they “would be assigned to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Provincial Regional Office 9 or Zamboanga City.”
So the first question is, how come the sanction was to transfer them to Mindanao? How will that change their behavior? How will that stop extortion? And this is not an isolated case. Recent news reminds us that Rear Admiral Feliciano Angue is set to be reassigned to the Naval Forces Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) as a result of an ethics complaint. So, why Mindanao? If the allegations against Mendoza were true, what would stop him from doing the same things in Mindanao? How is sending personnel under disciplinary action to Mindanao going to help the situation there? We now know that Mendoza was eventually terminated and even stripped of his retirement benefits but this makes one wonder, how many corrupt officers could there be in Mindanao by now?
Chapter two reveals how the complaint was made. After reading Christian Kalaw’s version of his ordeal, I immediately imagined an angered father storming into the police station demanding an explanation and asking that they return the PhP 20,000. Interestingly, none of this happened. No money was demanded back. No father entered a police station. Christian Kalaw’s father, Bob Kalaw, circulated his case as viral email. He did not approach the authorities. It was allegedly the other way around. Numerous accounts on the Internet state that it was Police Sup Eleazar Pepito Matta who wrote Bob Kalaw to address the email that he had been asking friends to pass around.
True or not, this chapter raises another set of questions. Why did Bob Kalaw preempt investigations by circulating this email? Was it to gain sympathy and build up his case? Why didn’t he go straight to the authorities? Why did the Philippine National Police (PNP), with its laughable track record, suddenly have the initiative to reach out to a concerned citizen who hadn’t even filed a formal complaint? Who is Bob Kalaw anyway and just how powerful and connected is he that a complaint he filed is now with the Office of the Ombudsman, a body that is supposed to catch big fish?
As always, each character will have his or her version of the story. Even the audience members will create their own. Some have theorized that Bob Kalaw fabricated the entire email. Andres Rizal, in his blog, claimed that Bob Kalaw wanted his son to take a drug test but Christian Kalaw admitted that he would test positive because he had, in truth, been taking drugs. Rizal further claims on Jim Ayson’s blog that Christian Kalaw was not even connected with The Mandarin Oriental Hotel anymore when he was arrested. Could Bob Kalaw have created this story, randomly picked an unsuspecting police officer as his scapegoat, and used his connections within PNP to clear his son’s name of drug abuse? We might never know. But the fact that we have to ask this question, and that we know the scenario is not impossible, reminds us of another sad truth; oligarchs with clout exist.
Chapter three takes us through the decision-making process. The Inquirer stated in a report:
“Mendoza was fired in spite of a recommendation by the PNP Internal Affairs Service and prosecutors that the case against him be thrown out after Kalaw failed to attend proceedings against the officer.”
Wait, Christian Kalaw never attended the proceedings? Why not? And the charges against Mendoza were dropped. Why was he still fired? And what was the Ombudsman’s decision? Manila Times reported:
“We find the lone testimony of Christian credible on the ground that he would not concoct such a traumatic story against respondents if it were not true”
Hold on one minute. Let me water this statement down and simplify it. If I understand it correctly, this is what the decision is saying in plain terms:
“We believe Christian because he would not make up a traumatic story against Mendoza if it weren’t true.”
What? Where is the logic in this? Whatever happened to cross-examinations? Whatever happened to lie detectors? Whatever happened to evidence? Oh right, Christian Kalaw was absent from the proceedings. So again, more questions. What really was the basis of the Office of the Ombudsman’s decision? What was at stake that a decision in favor of Christian Kalaw was made despite his absence? How strong was Christian Kalaw’s case sans viral email? If this is how our system decides on criminal cases, then we all better be ready with our sob stories.
Chapter four brings us to August 23, 2010. The world has its spotlight on a dismissed police officer who wants his job back. What could be driving this behavior? What could compel a man to take a tourist bus hostage and demand attention from the media and the government? Either he believes he is innocent and was treated unjustly or his face is just as thick as the windows of the bus that he took hostage. Again, we are faced with two scenarios that both fuel the fire of our rage against the rotten system. On the one hand, if he was indeed innocent, we blame the Office of the Ombudsman for its glacial pace in reviewing Mendoza’s case. On the other hand, if he was guilty, we condemn him as someone who exemplifies and perpetuates the negative image of the PNP. Either way, we still lose our faith in the system.
And now, with all this finger-pointing, bashing, and apologizing, there is a very real possibility that we will be distracted from the root cause. Has anyone bothered to understand Mendoza’s version of the story as submitted in his counter-affidavit? Where is Christian Kalaw now? Was he ever held in contempt of court for not attending the proceedings? Did anyone check for evidence of seat-belt marks against his neck as he claimed? It was stated in Bob Kalaw's email that this same group of cops had seven other victims. Where are they? Why have they not come forward to demand justice as Christian Kalaw has successfully done?
A lot of times, the questions are more important than the answers. And sometimes, the circumstances around why one would ask such questions are even more important. I don’t expect that we would find out the truth or that you and I would even have the same version of it. But I would not be surprised if they suddenly shipped the entire SWAT team to Mindanao.

source: digitaljournal.com

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Christian Kalaw's ordeal with Mendoza….

As I write this piece, the hostage taking of Chinese tourists and their Filipino guides has yet to be resolved. I wrote about this hostage taker—former Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza as well as former unit which included former Insp. Nelson Lagasca, SPO1 Nestor David, PO3 Wilson Gavino and PO2 Roderick Lopena—in a previous column way back in 2008. I warned readers about their rogue mobile patrol unit which used to victimize young people in the Vito Cruz area.

I called Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim’s attention to them because they engaged in “hulidap” operations, wherein they would conduct illegal checkpoints and scare hapless motorists into giving money.

I was asked to call Mayor Lim’s attention by a number of people who were victimized by this group, including a couple of students, a journalist from another paper, and a Senate staff member. These same policemen also victimized a young chef who was visiting his cousin in Vito Cruz (or Pablo Ocampo).

These rogue policemen were charged with robbery, robbery-extortion, grave threats and physical injuries. As Mendoza’s hostage taking shows, citizens have every reason to be scared of these policemen.

The young chef they victimized, Christian Kalaw, failed to show up during subsequent hearings and that’s why the charges against Mendoza and company were supposedly dropped. Kalaw probably was scared to death after what happened to him.

Kalaw went to the condo of his cousin to return a laptop he borrowed. His cousin lived at a condo in Vito Cruz. He parked, went up to return the laptop, and when he got back, the policemen were already inspecting his car, which they claimed was illegally parked. The policemen asked him to open his trunk. Kalaw asked for a warrant.

The policemen opened the trunk anyway and searched the car’s interior. They found the plastic end of some spark plugs in the toolbox and one of the cops claimed it was drug paraphernalia. The same cop allegedly planted used plastic sachets of shabu and started shouting, “Drugs!”

Instead of taking Kalaw to the precinct, they took him to a nearby ATM and asked him to withdraw all his money in the account. But Kalaw said he only used his ATM to draw his salary from the Mandarin Hotel and does not keep his money there. Kalaw insisted on a drug test. He told the policemen that if he were indeed a drug user he would not have been able to get clearance certificates from the PNP, the NBI, barangay and a medical clearance, which were all required before he could start work as a chef at the Mandarin hotel.

Confident he would be cleared through a drug test, he went with the policemen to submit himself to one. He was taken instead to the parking lot of the Ospital ng Maynila, where he was beaten up and forced at gunpoint to swallow shabu so he would test positive for drugs.

Kalaw was then brought to the precinct, the District Mobile Patrol Unit office where Lagasca and Mendoza demanded P200,000 from him in exchange for his release without charges. Kalaw spent the night in jail and was only released the day after when his friend managed to produce P20,000 for the policemen.

Before this hostage taking, I remember asking my friend in the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) why these rogue policemen were being kept on the force (they were first suspended and even considered being shipped to Mindanao). He told me it was better to keep them within the police where their actions can be “controlled.” If they are no longer policemen then, he said, they will be more uncontrollable as criminals.

His words proved prophetic as yesterday Mendoza turned into a deranged hostage taker. By: Ernesto Herera

source: donavictorina.blogspot.com

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Who is this hostage-taking cop?

By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 11:33:00 08/23/2010


MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) Despite winning an award as Jaycees International’s Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) in 1986, the police officer who held hostage a busload of Chinese tourists from Hong Kong in Manila was dismissed from the service earlier this year for extortion and for forcing a chef to swallow “shabu.”

According to records in Camp Crame, Senior Inspector Rolando Del Rosario Mendoza was dismissed by Office of the Ombudsman early in January together with four other policemen. They were stripped of their retirement benefits. Mendoza was also disqualified from holding any position in the government service.

Along with Mendoza, also dismissed were Police Officer 3 Wilson Matic Gavino, Inspector Nelson Ubano Lagasca, Senior Police Officer 1 Nestor Reyes David and Police Officer 2 Roderick Salva Lopeña.

The Ombudsman found Mendoza and the others guilty of grave misconduct for allegedly extorting P20,000 from Christian Kalaw, a chef of the Mandarin Hotel. According to records of the case, Mendoza and the other policemen accosted Kalaw for illegal parking, driving without license and use of illegal drugs two years ago in Manila.

On April 9, 2008, Kalaw parked his car along Vito Cruz and was accosted by the policemen. They accused Kalaw of being a drug user and tried to extort P3,000 from him. The records also said Kalaw was forced by the policemen to swallow a sachet full of shabu while they were trying to extort P20,000 from the chef at the headquarters of the Mobile Patrol Unit of the Manila Police District.

Administrative charges against Mendoza were filed on April 25, 2008, after which he was relieved as chief of the Mobile Patrol Unit.

But on October 17, 2008, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Internal Affairs Service (IAS) recommended the dismissal of the case after Kalaw failed to attend the dismissal proceedings.

In August of the same year, the Manila Prosecutors Office Eighth Division also dismissed the case after Kalaw failed to appear during the preliminary proceedings of the case.

In 1986, the Jaycees International awarded Mendoza its Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) award.

According to his personal data sheet, he has garnered 17 awards and commendations from the PNP, including multiple citations of the Medalya ng Papuri (PNP Medal of Commendation), the PNP Badge of Honor, the Medalya ng Kasanayan (PNP Efficiency Medal), Medalya ng Kagalingan (PNP Merit Medal) and the Medalya ng Paglilingkod (PNP Service Medal), and a Letter of Commendation.

Mendoza lists his address inside the Camp Ricardo Papa police camp in Bicutan, Taguig.

He was born on January 10, 1955 in Naic, Cavite. He has two sons and a daughter with wife Aurora, who are now based in Banadero, Tanauan, Batangas. He was supposed to retire next year. One of his sons, Bismarck, is deputy chief of the Bangued police station in Abra with a rank of inspector. He was reported to have taken a trip to Manila when he heard of the hostage-taking.

Mendoza graduated from the Philippine College of Criminology with a BS degree in Criminology.

He entered the PNP in April 1981 as a patrolman through the defunct Integrated National Police (INP). In January 1991, he was absorbed into the PNP with the rank of Senior Police Officer 3 with the Western Police District (WPD), now known as the Manila Police District. He was promoted to Inspector in May 2002 and as a Senior Inspector in August 2005.

In June 2008 a few months after Kalaw filed charges against him, Mendoza was shipped out to the provincial police office of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). But this reassignment never materialized as he served a 90-day suspension.

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complaint filed by NCR Police Office represented PSSupt Clarence V. Guinto

the case against the manila hostage taker part 2

[umehime00]

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Bus Hostage Crisis: Why Rolando Mendoza had to resort to this?
By dinoacuna

It is always easy to say that former Chief Inspector Mendoza had lost his sanity when he resorted into a Bus Hostage Saga yesterday. Losing his own life and 8 others in a bloody shootout is indeed horrible. Surely, this incident will create a new picture of the Philippines in the international view. It is very unfortunate that this had to happen when our country is in the verge of reaching out for the best that is said to yet to come. When a new hope is brightly shinning in every Filipino faces. When the government is in the course of transforming itself into what P-noy says, “Tayo na sa tuwid na daan tungo sa kaunlaran”. Yet, this incident poses a great challenge not just for the government of the Philippines, but for every Filipino.

August 23, 2010, the crisis began when former Police Senior Inspector, a 55 year old Rolando Mendoza, seized a tourist bus on its stop at Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila, hijacking 26 of its passengers mostly Chinese nationals from Hong Kong. In the course of the drama at the famous Quirino grandstand, Mendoza released nine hostages, leaving behind at least 16 others. He later succumbed to a sniper’s bullet in his temporal lobe. His demands? Give him back the job.


I feel terribly sorry, for the innocent victims. I cannot imagine myself being inside of that bus, in this very horrifying situation with an uncertain result where death is very vividly possible any moment. My heart goes to those who perished from this insensible death. This is indeed a very sad moment for the Philippines. This is very consequential in as much as international relations, investments, security and tourism factors are concerned.

According to Mendoza’s brother, another policeman Gregorio, his brother Rolando is very disappointed about his fate in his career after he was unjustly removed from service last January. Putting to waste all his 31 years of service and losing all his retirment benefits. Mendoza, a well decorated recipient of 17 awards and commendations whose house, according to son Police Officer Bismark, is full of laminated plaques, claimed he was not accorded due process.


In 2008, an administrative case was brought against Mendoza after he and 4 other policemen allegedly extorted PHP 20,000.00 from Christian Kalaw, a chef at Mandarin Hotel, who was also said to have been forced to swallow a sachet of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

The police officers involved, reportedly cited Kalaw for illegal parking, driving without a license and use of illegal drugs on April 9, 2008, in Manila.

The brother said, Mendoza even contemplated on filing an impeachment proceedings against Ombudsman Merciditas Guttierez for failing to serve him justice. Mendoza, in a phone interview with ABS CBN’s Jorge Carino hours before he was gunned down, said he wrote an appeal to Guttierez three times but never got a response, not even a copy of the Ombudsman’s final decision of his case. In desperation, Mendoza said his life is senseless.


Again, everything goes back to the system where we are all in right now. Whoever or whatever inflicted it on us, be it the government, judiciary, legislative, poverty or corruption, I hope this lesson is well learned and never forgotten.

source:dinoacuna.wordpress.com

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Rolando Mendoza: From decorated cop to hostage-taker

by Carmela Lapeña, Veronica Pulumbarit, RSJ
from GMANews.TV

Former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, the decorated police officer turned hostage-taker, died a gruesome death on August 23, the day he took 25 passengers of a tourist bus hostage in Manila.

However, Mendoza’s fall from grace began not on that fateful day, but more than two years ago as he allegedly became involved in a controversial “hulidap” operation in April 2008.

“Hulidap” is a Filipino slang word coined from “huli” (arrest) and “holdup.” “Hulidap policemen” conduct illegal arrests of innocent civilians with the aim of extorting money from them.

It is not certain when Mendoza allegedly started engaging in hulidap. However, his alleged hulidap activity on April 9, 2008 has been well-exposed in the cyber world. (See: 5 cops charged for extortion, forcing chef to eat shabu)

Stories and blogs about Mendoza and his fellow policemen’s illegal activity on that day had gone viral on the Internet after their victim’s father posted an email about his son’s ordeal.

Decorated police officer

Before the April 2008 incident, Mendoza was a recipient of several awards in his 28 years as a policeman.

He received a Medalya ng Papuri (Medal of Honor), PNP Badge of Honor, Medalya ng Kasanayan (Medal of Competence), Medalya ng Kagalingan (Medal of Excellence) and the Medalya ng Paglilingkod (Medal of Service).

He was also a recipient of the 1986 Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines of the Jaycees International award.

Mendoza entered the police force in 1981 as a patrolman in the defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP) and became SPO2 in the early 1990s following the birth of the Philippine National Police.

He was promoted to inspector in 2002 and senior inspector in 2005. He was scheduled to retire on January 10, 2011 but his term was cut short on February 16 last year due to charges of robbery and extortion.

Before his dismissal, Mendoza was meted a 90-day suspension in June 2008 over the same charges. He was supposed to be reassigned to Mindanao until he was ordered dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Police Director Leocadio Santiago, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said that any sentence by the Ombudsman is immediately executory. “The PNP is compelled to execute the order,” he said.

[*real-bro*]

Lapses......lapses......lapses was the source of evil injustice. Govt employees should conduct also a continuing educational program to uplift the modern day activities.

[kzoo_14]

haha..kapoya basa oi..hehehe......

[cebugdev]

ang president ang naay last say kng knsa ang ideploy, pero asa ntawn to cya during crisis?

"Its the same police force, same media but this one was the most bloody and a big failure compare to those hostage takings, coupdetat,etc happens during PGMA admin,outcome is they have different person taking in command.."

[CeeJay]

ftw!